Sylux: Neophyte
by Tyrannolodon
Summary: The first part of the story of Sylux, where a boy finds himself thrust into the wider universe as part of the legacy of a faded Empire that seeks a return to glory. But beyond the obvious threats lie things far more sinister than bloodthirsty space pirates or lethal federal Black Ops.
1. Preparations

_"__It takes only takes one to start a fire." _\- Chozo proverb

* * *

Born screaming into the world was a single child. Sigmund von Schirmer, a gasp for air went out from his lungs as medical drones carefully overlooked the mother bringing him into the world. "Congratulations Gertrude, your son has undergone delivery with zero complications and with entirely healthy vital signs in both yourself and the offspring.." The lead drone said as it took the small infant away from the passage it had just left and back towards the tired mother after proper procedures to ensure that any leftover fluid in the lungs would be forcibly vacated and the infant had been properly cleaned.

A nervous husband gazed down at the infant as he reflexively and blindly clung to his mother. "I will call him...Sigmund, what do you think Siegfried ?" Gertrude said breathlessly, her silver hair stringy and messy from the effort. Siegfried paused for a moment as the new life on Cylosis sucked in some of his first breaths of air, small heart beating strongly It would still be some time before he could so much as open his eyes, and yet the little thing still made him want to place his hand on his dired off head.

"It's a fine name." He said as he smiled at the baby. The bond of family was soon to forge, having already been moulded by these first few moments, but duty quickly manifested itself and called him away. His notification system intoned and informed him that his attention was now needed, immediately based on the specific type of tone he was receiving. Sighing as he brought forth his device, he frowned as he saw that he was being called to a mountain range half-way across the world.

"Do what you have to." Gertrude said, immediately recognizing the severity of the intonations, which alerted the medical staff to quickly give him the space he needed to leave as quickly as possible. A brief apology was stated, a small smile formed on both of their lips as they parted for a brief moment. Sigmund's breaths remained as quiet as ever as the staff remained on hand to help his mother back to her feet as soon as possible.

Elsewhere on the world of Cylosis and naught but fifteen minutes later, at one of it's rather peculiar mountain ranges, Siegfried was deposited onto a flattened out section of mountain where a base had been set up, with scientists and digging mechanisms swarming the area as they buzzed around what, if the whispers he were hearing from around the site, was supposed to be something incredible.

With the night sky and triple moons of Cylosis behind him, the pale, silver haired and clean shaven man affixed his cold weather gear and formal attire, the fringes of his epaulettes swaying somewhat in the wind. "So what was so important that it had to interrupt the birth of my son?" He said, the expression on his face quickly informing those speaking to him that they had better impress upon him the importance of what they were doing.

"Of course sir. Not too long ago there was a firefight between a bounty hunter and her quarry. Some excessive firepower was used and a hole was cracked into the mountainside. The police came to investigate, however, when they assessed the damage they found readings they could not believe. After thorough rechecks, we were called, and we could confirm it. It was Alimbic technology, A whole ship's worth." Said the lead archeaologist, the eight limbed, compound eyed and writhing creature's circular mouth forcing out vocalizations translated into something he could understand.

"Ah...how far are we from exploiting it?" He asked, rubbing his chin as he downloaded the relevant data, using his own access code's to delve into the restricted information, pouring over everything he thought would be something that he would need to know. As far as he could tell, virtually everything about this project was something he had to know about. The Alimbics had passed ten thousand cosmic years ago, and even when they were present they were never the sort to freely share their sciences with the younger species, a chance to study an entire ship, a capital ship no less, was something he'd have to keep close tabs on.

"I don't think I can give an estimate, maybe terrestrial years, probably terrestrial years in fact. But with something this complete, we could ensure our independence for ages to come. Give us the funding, and we can work wonders here, Prime Minister." The Archeaologist said, prompting the minister to tip his cap to them as he lowered his device. A firm salute was passed between the two as the Minister of Cylosis decided to take a step inside the digsite, stepping past the multitudes of workers and excavation drones.

There, upon the silent composite doors they had unearthed, was an Alimbic emblem staring at him in the face. Air quickly filled his opening mouth as he sucked in a gasp. Being told about something was very different from seeing it in person. Yes, this would do.

* * *

_A terrestrial year later. _

Sigmund made a faltering step, a fumble in the path towards actually walking straight. An encouraging tutor drone floated before him, it's triangular body and tendril like arms continually gesturing forward. "Come forward, come on Sigmund." The machine said as it urged him forward. Everywhere stood machines to record this moment at every possible angle, to ensure that the memory of his first few steps would not be forgotten.

With his mother, clad in her dark coloured power suit, watching over him, he felt himself redouble his efforts to remain upright and avoid falling down again. Pushing himself up, he once again tackled the problem of defying gravity's command that he stay down. Twelve steps this time, twelve steps he managed before tripping over his own shoes and flopping onto the ground, substantially harder than before. A cry of pain and tears flowed from him before his mother stepped in.

"Mommy!" He cried before a gauntleted hand reached for his cheek and a soft lullaby filled his ears. In an instant, Gertrude kneeled down to his level as she righted him once again. Medical femtomachines were placed on the injured knee, the ruptured blood vessels in the bruise rapidly restoring themselves as she applied the clear salve to the knee, his own red eyes locked on his mother's violets, whimpers and whines slowly fading away. A warm embrace came around him, and was returned as she continued her lullaby, all the troubles in the world rapidly being forgotten.

For all the genetic drift Cylosians had from more "standard" humans across their Imperium, the taller frames, the melanin deprived hair, eyes, and skin, the more developed lungs, the connection of parent and child remained She adored her son just like countless other mothers throughout the stars and galaxies, her status and culture did nothing to change that. With the boy asleep, she personally carried him to his room to be allowed to rest.

After setting him down, she checked the infofeed on the contact lenses she had placed on earlier today. Little called her interest until a request from Siegfried for her presence soon dashed across her vision. A thought notified Siegfried that she was on her way and the Cyranar of the Imperium was soon off to the digsite uncovered a terrestrial year ago. After using a two-way teleportation station set up for the convenience of the government, demonstrating to the guards her security clearances and passing by numerous checks, she took a few steps and went from one end of the world to the other. An impossible miracle by the standards of a long dead age made so routine she hardly blinked at it.

When she arrived, brisk salutes were given once she verified her identity. Signs of respect to the second most influential woman in the entire nation and it's finest warrior. Her expression was calm as could be as she descended into the excavation site's deepest reaches, her arms folded while her guards remained ever silent and positively stiff in their posture, or as stiff as they could be in the case of those guards that did not have a humanlike way to carry themselves.

Drones hovered around the area, shifting positions so as to ensure every nook and cranny of her descent through the elevator was covered. All something of a formality perhaps, though the title of Cyranar was honorary, it was certainly not an empty one, and none of her guards doubted that if needed,she could probably kill them all by herself.

When the elevator finally stopped, she quietly stepped forth, the doors recognizing her and disabling their shielding and retracting their twin metal sliders to allow her through, followed by the menagerie of guards and drones that always kept her company whenever the situation called for it. Another series of checks were made, such a project was bound to attract the attentions of potential enemies, something she understood perfectly well.

The bid for armed neutrality had made quite a number of enemies who would seek to force the nation to bow to one great power or the other. Enemy agents would be all over the site the moment any information leaked out, and given the presence of shapeshifters, it was only logical to make sure she was in fact, Gertrude.

With the final layers of security finally giving way to her, she had entered the room where nearly the whole of the ship had been uncovered at the heart of the mountain. A sharp breath of air filled her lungs as she gazed upon the craft, still intact after what she had been told was six million terrestrial years of being buried into this world. A timespan longer than her entire genus had walked the universe to be left unperturbed by the wider universe, and it was still in perfectly functioning condition. Truly marvelous she thought.

"Glad you could make it Gertrude." Siegfried said, bringing her out of her musings on the vessel. The Chancellor had spent many hours here, overseeing the efforts to glean more information about the ship personally. Given the bedraggled look he had, he had clearly also skipped out of many hours of sleep, juggling his duties of office and his time spent here. A frown formed on Gertrude's face.

"You're not resting properly." She said, snaking her arms behind him and locking her hands together at his midsection to bring his attention to her and away from the monitor he barely moved away from. Her head rested on his shoulder and a smile formed on her face, made all the clearer by the brightly lit room.

He huffed and turned to her with an arched brow as she finally let go. "I'm sorry, but this has refused to let my attention go." He responded, pinching his brow as he received a thermos full of soup from a passing drone, taking it in his hand as scientists below gave Gertrude a series of salutes to acknowledge her presence among them.

"Your family also requires your attention Siegfried ." She said as she returned her hand to him, this time leaving it on his shoulder as she turned her head to glance at the data he was overlooking. Various forms of attempts to gain entry. All unsuccessful so far due to an inability to interface with the still active systems, the vastly superior materials science of the alimbics, and more recently the now active shielding.

"The ship's shielding is active now?" She said, Siegfried looking over at her and running a hand through his silvery hair as he chose his words.

"Since yesterday actually. They've been hoping that it means we will be able to access it soon." He said as she vaulted down from the high vantage point where they were standing from down onto the walkways below, ignoring his sudden protestations as she sought to get closer to the stricken spacecraft and try interfacing with the vessel for herself.

Getting closer and closer, the baffled security personnel were unable to decide whether to allow her through or to try and stop her. But it was soon too late as she closed the final stretch, and brought her arm forward to touch the craft, having noticed from the log that once the ship had activated, no attempts at physically contacting the ship had been made for safety reasons. She heard Siegfried shouting at her, but she was confident that she knew what she was doing.

She lay her hand flat out against the surface, the shielding of her suit contacting the shielding of the ship, and in an instant, a warbling tore through the air as the vessel initiated a deep scan of her. Out of all the power suits in the room, hers, as the Cyranar's warsuit, was the most sophisticated, and thus the one that held the vessel's attention the most. Enough for the ship to then initiate biological scans and then to do the same with every other living being in a massive area, tracing her bloodline and those of countless others in a femtosecond.

For another two femtoseconds, the ship analyzed the star charts of the universe that it could perceive, effortlessly writing code to interface with the technology it perceived so that it could drink a mountain's worth of information in an instant. Six million terrestrial years of history were studied in less time than it took for the light of the room to reach her eyes. But the vessel found, to it's distress, that the Alimbics were recorded as extinct, effective ten thousand of the current standard calendar's cycles ago, some two hundred thousand terrestrial years ago. At the hands of something known as Gorea.

In fact, all of the former peers of the Alimbics were listed as either dying or extinct. Though thankfully, it could find no traces of the hands of the Xik'krivik in current affairs. The vessel then returned it's focus on the silver haired and pale skinned woman before it, from the databases it had plundered, it had assigned her a name "Gertrude von Schirmer", then it assigned her a number of auxiliary titles "Duchess of Keislich and Hunster, Cyaranar of Cylosis, Maiden Name: von Trostoff, Chancellery Consort.

It then checked on the figure listed as her spouse, Siegfried von Schirmer, Duke of Keislich and Hunster, Prime Minister of the Federal Imperium of Cyrenea. Both of their parents were deceased due to Assassinations, and the two had recently sired a son. Deeming them of more importance than the Emperor, which it found had both a largely Ceremonial title and was off world at the Imperial Capital of Cyrene; with the machines having figured out that Cylosis was a legislative capital, it focused on them as it uploaded the information it had gleaned into the minds of it's crew, all to prepare them for the revival.

A wave of energy traveled across the outermost skin of the ship, enveloping it before stopping at the very front of it's prow and traveling backwards, pulsing three times before the crew of the vessel was finally awakened from it's six million terrestrial year long slumber. The time for hibernation was now ended, a new catalogue for this changed universe had to be crafted, plans for a restoration of what had been lost had to be drafted. Contact with these lesser beings had to be made as soon as possible.

"Gertrude, what have you done?!" Siegfried said, his voice hoarse from shouting as he caught up to her, her long silver locks flowing as she turned her head towards him, her expression a mixture of a small amount of repressed fear, awe, and perhaps some confusion as the vessel finally opened up, triangular doors forming in the sides of the craft and then retracting to allow the passengers to exit after but a few seconds of traversing through their mountainous vessel.

Impossibly tall and lanky creatures with heads that hovered above their bodies without the need of a neck greeted the gathered officials, with the guards, drones, and turrets immediately raising their weapons at the awakening alimbics who disabled their weapons technology with but a single thought, powering down their systems in an instant and leaving them at the mercy of the awakening ancients. The drones were redirected to point at their former controllers as telekinetic waves of force gripped the gathered Cylosians and kept them in place to be studied.

The lead Alimbic, clad in gold and electrum coloured armor and whose tear drop shaped head bore a single imposing yellow eye that glowed with some internal light, clacked it's undersized mandibles as it peered into the minds of the two Schirmer brought before it, clenching them in it's telekinetic grasp and lifting them into the air to be brought before it's almost four meter tall frame. Probes into the mind were made and briefly rebuffed, anti-telepathic techniques and devices. Interesting. Still, another application of Alimbic cybernetic warfare systems managed to shut down the devices, and mental contact was established once again.

The best anti-psychic techniques that their minds could be trained for were pierced in moments, every nook and cranny of their minds were examined before it finally spoke. Not with it's feeble, underdeveloped mandibles, but with it's mind. "~I am Aliborak, Commander of this vessel your civilization has developed around. I do not require your names, they have been accessed and memorized. I thank you for awakening us.~" The ancient being commanded in a mental voice that seemed like the crashing of the ocean onto a too small dike as it finally released the two and allowed their technology to function.

Immediately a storm of projectiles from the defenders of the site erupted, weapons of every descriptor were fired at once at the Alimbic, but it simply focused it's mind on the physical projectiles and halted them in mid air, crushing them in an instant while telekinetic barriers absorbed the incoming energy attacks, preventing them from even touching it's actual suit shielding. "~Cease this display of bravado immediately, it can avail you nothing before our overwhelming superiority in every facet of civilization.~" The Alimbic said as it allowed the projectiles to harmlessly drop to the floor.

"~Let your world know this, the Alimbics have returned.~".

* * *

_One year later. _

Sigmund sat with his toys, the two year old only occasionally nibbling on some of them when he got bored as his home had become a buzzing hive of activity. His parents had done so much to keep the news of the Alimbics heavily under wraps to prevent such things from reaching the ears of those who would move heaven and earth to see one. Despite his wishes for a loud and bombastic returns, Aliborak had to be ignored for the safety of the State, though keeping such a lie from it was certainly not within the realm of possibility.

Perhaps somewhat unfortunately for the boy, Aliborak and the other Alimbics had decided to go exploring across the planet, adhering to the desires of the Imperial government to keep them secret, avoiding foreigners at all costs, or even regular citizens when it could be helped. Anything that would help ensure that no one who need not know that he was among the living was appreciated by the government of Cylosis and the wider Imperium. And as far as the government was concerned, nobody outside of itself needed to know.

And despite all that, the ancient being was still making a mess, drawn by the siren call of exasperated sighs and grunts of frustration, he peeked his head outside of the door to examine what was causing all the ruckus. Putting it's hands all over things that Sigmund was never allowed to touch was Aliborak. The armor plated insectoid examined just about everything it could in the most intrusive of manners without giving a single pause or thought to the others who viewed the artworks it examined as something far more important than just baubles to be appraised.

Who was this Aliborak to handle such ancient pieces so roughly?! Would probably be what Sigmund would have thought had he been of the age to do so.

But a cursory examination of the thought processes in the room brought Aliborak's focus squarely on the small child, who gazed upwards at the creature with a mix of awe and fear. At nearly four meters, the Alimbic certainly was taller than just about anyone the boy was used to seeing, and the ever so bizarre combination of features entranced him as Aliborak and one of his assistants approached the child. Glances were exchanged between the primordial aliens, brief nods passed before Aliborak reached downwards.

Almost immediately Gertrude produced an arm cannon and leveled it at her newfound target, priceless art was one thing, threatening her son was entirely another. Not to be outdone, Siegfried made a single gesture and immediately every weapon in the room was pointed at the Alimbic. Sigmund himself tried his best to back away, not wanting to be touched by this strange alien, but Aliborak was much too quick, and hook like hands with tiny digits gripped the boy and lifted him into the air to the height of his serenely glowing eye.

"~This is one of your offspring then? And in such an early state of formation! What an ugly little thing!~" Aliborak said mentally to the scowling of the two parents before one of his aides flickered the glow of her central eye to get the attention of the ship commander. Turning it's head at angles that no human would have, the Alimbic locked gazes with it's other.

"~You are causing the neophyte a great deal of distress, it would be wise to release it immediately.~" The other stated, her armor plating's gunmetal colouration and symbology denoting her slightly lower rank and earning it the complete vertical rotation of Aliborak's head, a gesture made only possible by the floating nature of his cranium, and a gesture of acknowledgement at that. And soon the other's advice was validated as Sigmund started to do what most distressed two year olds do. Cry. Crying for mother, crying for father, crying to be let go, and just plain bawling.

"~It would appear that your foresight is impeccable Velgora. The grub is releasing most unpleasant noises.~" He said as he dropped the boy and sent him off towards his parents, where his father immediately scooped him up while his mother gave him a laserlike gaze that could have cut through the hardiest of alloys in the cosmos and a scowl that, if looks were able to kill, would have been classified as a weapon of mass destruction.

"It would be best if you would just...leave now. Go back to your ship." Siegfried breathed out as he comforted his still bawling son to the head rotations of the alimbics as they immediately set to depart from the building, never so much as indulging the ground with their presence as they floated towards the exit.

"~What disrespectful creatures.~" Aliborak said, ihis psychic intonations plainitive as most of the other Alimbics returned affirmative messages. It was almost inconceivable really; the arrogance of these new species to get so displeased over a simple cursory examination and scan of one of their own, however small and undeveloped he was. What right did they have to show such thoughtless disrescpect to their betters?

"~You were handling the offspring of a political leader in a manner their culture would find appalling Aliborak. Tact does not seem to be among the skills the tutors have been able to impress upon you.~" Velgora replied, placing a hand over her chest in a gesture equivalent to folding one's arms to properly convey her unimpressed nature as they passed by more of the natives of Cylosis, a menagerie of countless different species and ethnicities making themselves known as the palace staff did their best to keep out of the way of the old ones.

"~We are not dealing with peers but primitives. We have a burden to oversee these beings, to restore what was lost and show them the proper ways of civilization.~" Aliborak replied, turning his head away from her as he observed the pristinely kept grounds around the facility. Hardly the gardens of Alinos it noted with a hint of disdain. Truly civilization had faltered and declined without the guiding hand of the Alimbics.

"~The rebirth will not be made any easier by you antagonizing our hosts.~" Velgora countered as they floated on by, often lingering at times to have another look at the sights of this culture that had been born around them. Perhaps it was not as grand as the sights the empire of old had to offer, but even the relatively humble works of this far younger nation still had their own grandeur.

Soon, before Aliborak could raise his own rebuttal, the thoughts of others buzzed in it's mind. Attention was refocused, redirected to the source of this new factor. These were not the thoughts that Aliborak was used to during these visits. Most of these new patterns skewed younger, less developed, save for a few whose minds spoke of being caretakers for these little ones, a handful of this subset of them being guides.

A mental scan through their perspective revealed the truth. A gathering of offspring touring the palace under the escort of guards, teachers, tour guides, and security drones to ensure their education and safety while they visited the premises of the Chancellery.

"~Look at that, allowing neophytes to clamber over their seat of government. It's disgraceful.~" Aliborak noted, folding his arms as some of the children started to point and gawk in awe. One of the thought patterns from the escorts of the children seemed anomalous however. Further discrete probing uncovered the Truth, a shapeshifter. Aliborak considered warning the local government over this, but then decided against it, he was sure that if the Cylosians and the rest of their "Imperium" were presumptuous enough to treat him with their prior rudeness that they could handle the issue themselves.

* * *

_Weeks later, Vioverus Space Station, Galactic Federation territory. _

Agent Terunayya stepped out of her ship and was immediately greeted by the stiff salutes of the ground crew as drones soon took care of maintaining her vessel. Halting herself once she was outside of her vessel, the shapeshifter waited for a team of federation wraiths to pick her up, idly breathing out as the sound of metallic boots clacking onto a metallic floor made themselves increasingly apparent.

She hazarded turning her head to look towards them, and was soon greeted with a pair of Wraiths. There weren't the dark-blue and olive drab clad army grunts or the chrome and cyan coloured marines or even the blue and white squaddies of the galactic police, but black, blue, and gunmetal grey clad men, women, and whatever sort of gender some aliens claimed under the command of the Federal united central intelligence network.

Clad in heavy, intimidating armor with glowing blue visors meant to provide maximum vision while providing as few weak points as possible, each one stood at a statuesque stature, a clear sign of their modifications. The lead one gestured with his rifle and then nodded his head over behind him. "Follow us Agent." He said in a voice definitely modulated for a heavier bass tone than his throat could provide.

A few moments passed, followed by an elevator ride as she made her way to the central office of the station where she was to meet with her superior. Both her and the Wraiths remained in silence, there was simply nothing to be said between them.

Finally, the time came for her to report the details she had learned. Information far too valuable to risk being intercepted by a long range transmission while she was on world. The doors parted for her and the wraiths stepped aside, holding their guns across their chest after a swift pivot on their feet and a clicking of their boot heels.

She came into a well-lit room, seemingly old fashioned in that it used a carpet rather than a foam covering, a coating of wood laying over the walls to only enhance the aged feel of the room while personal effects decorated the entire area. Finally, the shapeshifter's attention was brought to a desk, where the figure of the Supreme Director of Federation intelligence was waiting for her.

An alien with a somewhat cuttlefish like head from which carapaced and segmented tentacles spilled forth from and a quartet of grasping arms, two emerging from the shoulders as expected, with two smaller limbs constantly pressing into tactile hard-light feeds from projected holograms.

The garments of office were robe like, with epaulettes dressing the director's shoulders as his tentacles flicked across the hard-light screens in a manner so as to close them. Immediately, she could feel the six eyes of the director staring directly at her, the algae green carapace of the director's body gleaming in the light as it gestured at a seat with one of it's tentacles.

" ...I wasn't expecting to be meeting with someone so high up." She said, almost stuttering as she forced down her gorge before taking a seat. She bit her lower lip right before her rear nestled into the welcoming confines of the chair, clearly nervous about having to encounter *the* head honcho of Federation intelligence. Vzorag was not someone you met over a cup of coffee, that was sure.

"I came as soon as you informed us of extraordinary circumstances requiring you to break off your duties on Cylosis. I was hoping that you would be able to provide us with information on why their nation has become so...close lipped with it's going abouts on it's legislative capital world all of a sudden. Such heavy media editing must mean they have something of value, no? And I would prefer to hear your words straight from the horse's mouth, before the Chairman has to hear." The Director said, clasping both pairs of it's limbs in an interlocking finger bridge.

"Yes, of course sir." Terunayya said as she maintained eye contact with the director, making sure not to stare at the idly writhing centipede like tendrils drooping from around it's circular mandible filled maw.

"As the data I am offering you here indicates, the Imaskarants have somehow managed to obtain a population of living Alimbics, and more than that, an entire intact Alimbic vessel." She said, offering him the drive which contained the data in a secure format, learning the second part of her statement certainly wasn't easy, but she had managed to uncover what they were hiding under their mountain dig site nonetheless.

Snatching the drive out of her hands, the director implanted them into his device and watched as a hard-light projection of her records was displayed before him. After taking a short while to take in enough information to satisfy himself, the Director then turned to Terunayya.

"It is fortunate that you brought this to my attention agent. What we have here represents a serious threat to Federation interests and the wider balance of power. With this, it is inevitable that soon the Imperium will start pressing claims to their disputed territories, and from there; establish itself as a serious menace to our society. They're already a superpower and while currently not able to match us and our allies; I expect they'll use this discovery to both empower themselves and vastly increase the number of states wanting to be on their side." The Director said, his buzzing and warbling being noise canceled by his translator so that an entirely understandable tone could be used in it's place as it processed his words.

"What do you plan on doing, sir?" Terunayya asked, taking the time to cross her left leg over her right at the knee and place her hands in her lap.

"We will need to strike pre-emptively. I will pass the information to other authorities and we can organize a way of stopping this issue before it becomes a major problem. From there, we need only wait for the right reason to act." The Director said, leaning in closer to her, and while his eyes lacked the brows to intensify his look, she got the gist of his gesture all the same.

"Once the Causus Belli is secured, our agents should have already disabled the interdictor stations preventing a direct jump at Cylosis; from there we secure the asset and then cripple the Imaskarant government to ensure that the war that erupts afterwards will be an easy one."

"Do we really need a war?" She asked, her fidgeting increasing as he spoke of what amounted to blasting a world full of innocents for what their government did.

"No one said that the job of keeping the dream of freedom, equality, and prosperity in the cosmos was an easy one Agent. What we do is hard to bear, even monstrous. I question myself often, but in the end, it has to be done. If we let them militarize what they've found our ability to protect our citizens may as well disappear. And I cannot allow that. If it's of any consolation, you no longer have to serve on that planet, speak to your usual director for a new assignment after you take some extra paid vacation time." He said, causing her brow to quirk.

"You'd do that for a field op like me?" She asked.

"I look out for my operatives Terunayya. Dismissed." Vzorag said as he refocused his attention to the datafiles.

"Sir." She said before giving him a salute and walking out of the room.

* * *

Imperial Intelligence Network Logfile

Logfile: Polities: Federal Imaskarant Imperium: Formed from the older Imperium of Korzonthos after a reformation following a civil war two thousand two hundred cosmic years ago, the Federated Imaskarant Imperium is based on the planet of Cyrene for its royal family, Yrostrol for its Judiciary, and Cylosis for its legislature. Cylosis was found to be a planet with slightly stronger than Earth gravity in addition to strong UV radiation screening by the first wave of human immigrants into the Imperium, who undertook the colonization project for their new government. To better suit their new home, genetic alteration was undertaken; making the colonists somewhat taller and physically hardier than standard humans, though their most distinctive traits are severe melanin deprivation to better absorb what little UV light there is to be had; leading to pale skin and hair colours such as stark red, silver, white, platinum, gold and the like to be substantially more common than in more intermixed humans, along with eye colors such as reds, violets, blues and even oranges or yellows.

Though originally founded primarily as a human colonial effort, the Cylosian colony has long since accepted or incorporated numerous other species, and eventually grew into a planet of such importance that it eventually became the legislative capital of the entirety of the Imaskarant Imperium. The Imperium maintains a weak Feudalistic Hierarchy, where titles and holdings exist, but do not carry any real power for themselves. Rather this elaborate hierarchy plays a strong role in Imaskarant Culture, where these titles are considered a mark of prestige and honor, being thought of as recognition and rewards for great deeds. There are no higher legal statuses awarded for one's place in the hierarchy.

The Empire maintains an emperor and an Imperial family; officially known as the Hrasktrazar (or Hkstrazara if female), which is a title passed out for supremely great deeds, and only if the prior Imperial family disgraces itself enough to make the government seek another family to honor. Additionally, the culturally significant title of Cyranar is passed out to whomever is recognized as the greatest individual combatant within the Imperium. Power truly rests in the elected legislature and the executive branch, divided between the Chancellor and Prime Minister, with the Prime Minister being the chief official of the ruling party or coalition and the Chancellor being elected independently of general elections.

The Imperium has repeatedly resisted calls for integration with the Federation and has also fiercely maintained it's independence from the other superpowers as part of it's "independent bloc", a policy which it maintains through strong militarization and heavy economic ties to ensure that forcible conquest would cause more harm to the aggressor than it would be worth. The prior version of the Imperium was also noted as a frequent rival and enemy of the Federation before its regime change and traces of the prior rivalry continue to flare up occasionally between the Imperium and the Federation.

Military Organizations: FUCIN Wraiths: Officially termed the "Reconnaissance Advanced Intelligence Team", the Wraiths are the armed forces of the Federal United Central Intelligence Networks, distinct from the Army, Navy, and Police. Crack troops with the latest in top secret military tech, brutal training regimens, no small degree of cybernetic and genetic enhancements, and disciplined for loyalty and initiative, the Wraiths are often criticized for their penchant for brutality in waging war, but continue to operate freely due to the powerful lobbies that like the idea of a paramilitary force with the guts to do what the military and police may not do due to ethical concerns.

A heavily controversial aspect of the Galactic Federation, the Wraiths are often deployed at the request of the more subtle arms of the Federation's intelligence body whenever they believe that the conventional military or police would not suffice for whatever reason. From there, the Wraiths deploy with a full complement of any kind of weapon, including their own fleet and motor pool. From there, Intelligence actions tend to become extremely violent as whatever required the deployment of such force typically ceases to remain an issue for very long.

In times of all out war, the Wraiths function under their own command structure that is theoretically part of the overall Federation's joint armed forces command, but has often in practice worked towards it's own goals at the behest of FUCIN, though they do their best to ensure that these goals also coincide with or benefit those of the wider military. When working in combined arms operations, Wraiths function as Shock Troopers or Commandos, working to where their individual superiority can outweigh their lack of numbers.

* * *

AN: You have no idea how long this has been in the pipe works...well actually anyone who can read a date knows how long this has been in the pipeworks but I digress. I stopped my prior fics because I felt that I was no longer satisfied with what I had created, and so retreated and thought out the long process of a proper rewrite.

Now, well, I'd like to think that my writing ability has improved tremendously, and that the story that I'm telling is also a more interesting one. Those who have read Sylux Origins are probably going to find that the story that follows is going to be a very different beast with a substantially different main character. And heck, everyone's going to be different.

But yes, welcome back!

AN: Many thanks to Mental Omega for helping me finally get back to this and injecting some new ideas into my thinkpan! You may have noticed a few revisions here and there and well, that should just be the start of the incoming new content.

Assume that unless I say otherwise, when I say "year" I meant a terrestrial year. A cosmic year is just about twenty terrestrial years.


	2. Embers

"_Vigilo Confido" _\- Motto of FUCIN, originally from Humanity's Extra-terrestrial Defense Command Unit.

* * *

_One year later._

Another year had passed by the reckoning of earth, though Cylosis had only completed three tenths of a revolution since Sigmund's birth. So much had happened that he didn't quite understand. There were so many more soldiers going around than there had been before, and his dad always seemed to be so angry with the man from the federation. Oh how they would yell at each other as their discussions went along.

Soon, Sigmund's curiosity would get the better of him. He just had to find out what was causing so much commotion.

One day, he decided to make his way over to one of his father's discussions. The guards were long used to his wanderings and had long decided that they weren't anything worth getting worked up about so long as he remained safe. He would face little trouble from them as he made his way over to the room where Dad usually held all his most important guests.

"The evictions of your troops from our territory were popularly demanded and you had no right to set up those listening outposts in our space. You're lucky that we have them a polite request rather than send in the battleships." His dad's voice said, cutting through the air and making it's displeasure with the other speaker all too clear, even if he couldn't understand half of what he said actually meant.

Still, he wanted to learn more about what put his dad in a dreadful mood.

"It was in the interests of our national security mister Chancellor, you can hardly expect us not to want to keep an eye on you when you continually refuse to consider warmer relations with the federation and make overtures of military pacts with other states against us." The ambassador, a rather thin man with ruddy copper hair responded, drawing a scowl from Siegfried.

"The Imperium has survived for a very long time without the Federation's busy-body interference mister Ambassador, I shan't allow it to become a tool of your foreign policy simply because you demand it. And if the Federation ceases to loom over our heads like the sword of damocles maybe, just maybe I'll consider not seeking defensive alliances." Siegfried said, his voice filled with contempt for the man on the other side of the table.

"The need to contain the Krikens, the Confederacy, and our other ene-"

"Are irrelevant to the sanctity of the Imperium's sovereignty. Call them the Confederacy of Intergalactic States or the Space Pirates or what have you, we can handle them in our own way." He interrupted him, pointing a slender pianist's finger at the other man who almost leaned back from the gesture.

"All I'm doing is raising the concerns of the citizenry of my government Chancellor." He said, throwing his hands up in the air to the disgusted nod of his father.

"The senate at Daiban is kindly invited to fuck itself because the Imperial Parliament is not budging on this you wretch. What else do you have to darken my day with you pompous weasel?" Sigmund creased his brow at one of those terms...what did that mean? He heard people say it when they were really angry, but nobody ever told him what it meant. He'd have to ask mom about it.

"Well since you're clearly in a terrible mood, I'd like to discuss the telescope galaxy disputes." He said as he got out the datapads with the relevant information only to be met with the silver haired prime minister introducing his face to the palm of his hand timed with a long, exasperated groan.

"Your recent upsurge of colonists is rather troubling mister Schirmer, care to explain?" The Ambassador said as Siegfried blurted out an already formulated response.

"We're not some sort of fascist dictatorship, our people are free to go where they choose. If they want to move to the frontiers that's their choice!" He said, stopping himself just an inch before slamming his fist on the table.

"But you're incentivizing them."

"People want to live on planets, not orbitals or artificial worlds. We subsidize them so that their moving is as painless as possible. We subsidize other moves too."

"Not quite as strongly as moves to planets. In addition your baby boomer policies seem to indicate a fear that you'll be running low on population, such as in case of war?" The Ambassador said, moving the relevant data forward before Siegfried dismissed it with a wave of the hand.

"Of course we're afraid of war. We're always worried about assimilation by larger powers. You in particular." Siegfried countered. His tone was certainly not happy with the insinuations being made by the Federation diplomat.

"Then surely you'd agree to some sensible treaties concerning our colonial overlap. Unless you really are deadset on acquiring more territory." The diplomat managed to say before Siegfried got up off his seat and stormed over to the ambassador.

"I've had enough of your disingenuous assertions!" He shouted before punching him squarely in the right side of the jaw with a powerful right hook. A gesture unthinkable to the culture from which the ambassador was from, but a rather common one here. A smack and a crack went through the room, Sigmund flinched and looked away as the man fell off his chair and hit the ground with a thud. This was the second time Siegfried had socked that particular man in the jaw after a meeting. Last time he had said "I've had enough of your snide insinuations!" Though that time the punch had been in the gut.

"Guards, get this man out of my sight." He said as he returned to his seat, the armed and armoured guards filing in and dragging the unconscious ambassador out of his office.

"Dad." Sigmund interjected, bringing the full measure of Siegfried's attention down upon him as he sat back in his chair. Immediately, guilt wormed it's way into the man's gut as he realized that his violent outburst had been noticed by his son.

"Sigmund, how much did you see?"

"Why did you hit that man?"

Siegfried sighed as he considered his options. Encouraging him to lash out at everyone who upset him was clearly out of the question and he simply wouldn't understand the political situation that lead him to strike at the diplomat. Then it came to him and his face light up as he thought of a response.

"What he was saying were things that would lead to a lot of people being hurt, and I had to act quickly to make him stop saying them. " He said, knowing full well just the magnitude of how terrible his advice was, but at his age there was still plenty of time to correct any mistakes in parenting made at this point. But he did find himself wishing Gertrude was here, she was always so much better at handling children.

"Really?" Sigmund asked. Eyes wide and curious.

"Really." Siegfried said, nodding and pleased with himself for saying something that suited his conscience.

"Now go and play, I have something to attend to." He said, earning a nod from the boy as he toddled his way out of the room.

* * *

_Federation Space, some time later  
_

"So he punched you?" Vzorag asked.

"Oh I was just napping for five minutes. Of course he punched me!" The Ambassador complained loudly as he rubbed at the spot he was hit. The bruise formed was already healed, thank goodness for medical tech, but he still felt as though his pride had been directly assaulted.

"Hardly a sufficient Causus Belli. The Senate and House would laugh me back to Kulukratok if I tried presenting that before a committee." Vzorag noted with a displeased click, the tentacles on its face writhing almost hypnotically as he contemplated.

"However, what I do have for you might just convince you to head back." It said as he presented some images showing the images of the Alimbics taken by one of the agents it managed to sneak onto Cylosis. The Director studied the reaction of the Ambassador and noted with satisfaction as the human's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. The Ambassador's species always found it hard to read its kind's body language, but the human may as well have been an open book to the director. Now, it had his full attention.

"I hope I don't need to remind you that this bears great potential consequences for Federation security interests. The Imperium has always been unfriendly at best. Optimistically they'll use this to overcome their traditional rivals in the Commune, Republic, Ecumene and others and overwhelm us with a matchless socioeconomic advantage. Worst case scenario? They do so in a far more hostile and aggressive manner." The Director said, its words heavy with concern.

"I need to get a war started and started quickly. We need to quickly and pre-emptively strike at Cylosis and do a smash and grab as a start to a general war to break the Imperium once and for all and then draw it in as a client state with future annexation on the table. Fortunately, we have Vogl as Chairman. A Hawk like him should be easy to convince to endorse a conflict with the Imaska-" The director started before the Ambassador interrupted it.

"I am all for containing the Imperium and trying to drive them away from our enemies but what you're asking for is obscene. You're asking for the Federation to play the part of villains in an insane conspiracy theory. The Federation has principles to uphold for the Buddha's sake! We can't just shatter a great power because of what they might do!" The Ambassador protested, his face red with outrage, his mind reeling from the revelation of the Director's plan.

"Realpolitik is the guiding principle of our foreign politics. You want a society that puts idealism and well-wishing over pragmatic realities? Fine, move to the Vhozon Grand Judiciary where everything is based on moralizing." Vzorag countered.

"There's a difference between being pragmatic and asking for pointless wars of annihilation!" The ambassador shot back, making Vzorag almost flinch a bit from the ferocity of his statement. A few seconds later, the ambassador noted that his cheeks were red, his hand ached from slamming into the table, and that he was out of his seat. Apologizing, he quickly sat back in his chair.

"How would you even pull off this preemptive strike you keep harping on about anyway? Cylosis is deeply nestled into well defended territory and there's numerous hyperspace interdiction screens preventing you from just dropping by." He said, folding his arms while Vzorag almost seemed to brighten up at the opportunity to explain its master plan.

"Come with me." Vzorag said as it stood out of its seat and gestured to the ambassador to follow it as it skittered on eight legs out of the room. The ambassador grimaced briefly before sighing as he followed the director of FUCIN on his "tour." Exiting through a red screened circular door, the two were acknowledged by a series of RAIT guards, whose helmets reminded the historically minded ambassador of Stahlhelms from Earth's distant past, coupled with intimidating helmets built to resemble twin filter gas masks, with trapezoidal eye pieces the size of fists to let them see the world outside their helmets.

"Impressive stormtroopers you have there." He idly mentioned to the director who gave the Ambassador the briefest, but most withering of glares, and he soon became aware of every RAIT operative in the room turning to focus their attention entirely on him. Gulping audibly, the Ambassador could virtually taste the oncoming retort.

"RAIT is hardly just a band of stormtroopers, it is our most elite fighting force, dedicated to the Federation's cause like no other." Vzorag chastised as it approached the second door, applying its security clearances to the scanners so as to be allowed right through the door, a new shift of guards moving in to take their place by its side. Within the room was an even larger number of RAIT operatives who held their guns close to their chests, along with a number of special RAIT Enforcer troops. The ambassador took a moment to regard the soldiers inside and could feel the color draining out of his face when he saw the elite team of commandos who made up the enforcer team known as the Dead Hand Eight. Mercy, Razorblade, Magistera, Veil, Cyrux, Firebug, Dagger, and the imposing bulk of Adder.

Mercy was the first to greet his eyes, the Jovian clad head to toe in field grey and marroon armor, light and flexible, meant to avoid getting in the way of her innate ability to shapeshift as all of her amethyst coloured kind could.

"This is Mercy, not merely a Jovian, but a Psionic once as well we recruited her into our organization after we learned about her talents after she single handedly infiltrated an entire Kriken fortress and stole away with intelligence of the highest value. " He said as Mercy's mask-like helmet opened up to show her face, currently in the guise of a freckled human woman with short brown hair and full lips.

"Well, looks like the suits do care about what we're doing." She says with a smug grin on her face as she tilts her head to the side, purple eyes almost boring through him with the intensity of her stare as she drank in every detail about the man.

"Ease off." The Director said quickly, not caring for how uneasy she was making its guest.

"Yes sir." She responded quickly before stepping back, Magistera filling in the gap she left almost immediately as she decided that the ambassador was a subject worthy of her interests, and the ambassador for his part, would rather not have been so close to her. The longer haired, grey skinned woman was at him in a flash, and he felt wind circle around him as the incredibly quick woman removed a few things from his pockets before his brain could even receive the signals that informed him that he had been touched. The black haired woman flashed him a grin as she looked at his possessions, her fanged canines on display as the yellow, red dragon like horns of the woman became quite clear to the ambassador; as did her light battlesuit; silver and violet; which granted her a further enhanced physicality as well as even greater speeds than she was already capable of.

"Pretty nice stuff." She said as she threw back his assorted personal electronics and some of his physical keys and assorted other junk.

"Keep a better eye on your pockets though, next time I might not hand it back...if there is a next time." She said with a rich, but altogether sinister voice, chuckling at him as he grabbed his things and glared at her.

"Ah yes, Magistera. You would have trouble believing how useful someone capable of moving at the speeds she does is to our operations. After her operations in the Ecumene we felt that she could do so much more than simply languish in the Marine's commando corps." Vzorag said contently, with the ambassador giving the woman a long, hard glance.

The next to catch his eye was Veil, the reptilian man's snout turning towards him as his forked tongue slithered out, currently going without his helmet, Veil also seemed to prefer lighter armor, with a great deal of flexibile plating over the top of nanomesh in the areas his rather sparse carapace plating didn't cover, which was most of his save for his biceps, his torso, and his boots. His eye-turrets focused both of his slitted pupils dead onto the human, a hiss coming from the rather short alien, who stood a mere five feet.

"Welcome then, politician. Try to enjoy your visit." He said with a voice that made his tone difficult to determine.

"That is Veil, an expert in stealthy assassinations, tracking, demolition, and marksmanship. He's been with us for quite a long time, and his ah...skills have proven most useful to our cause." The director said, clacking its fingers together.

"You mean his skill with killing people." He said irritably.

"Hardly a way to talk to him." Said another, heavier voice as a large figure loomed into view. His heavy armor plating seeming the opposite of Mercy and Veil's. It was built like a tank, with well angled surfaces and hard-points for all manner of heavy weapons. The flame patterns on his suit certainly made his preferred means of destruction obvious though, the almost mitten like gauntlets of the suit folding as the head of the armor; a dome that actually rotated like the turret of the tank rather than turned anything like a human's head on their neck.

"This is Firebug, unlike the others here, Firebug is entirely mechanical, granting him liberty from many weaknesses suffered by simply living creatures. He used to be just like any other combat robot, but he started learning at an incredible pace, and soon he gained enough experience to be able to handle who armored battalions at a time. But it was his ability to also operate in special forces operations that sealed the deal for us." The director said, gesturing towards the enormous figure as the robot leaned in slightly towards him; the camera lenses on the machine focusing squarely on the man before him, who let out a little gulp.

"Aww, no need to shower me with praise sir, I just do what I've been programmed to." The deep, bass voice of the machine said, almost like the sound of heavy machinery powering up and forming words.

Dagger however, quite literally just materialized in front of the Ambassador. "I'm still somewhat dubious about bringing in a civilian." She said, her voice monotoned, her gaze positively leering with its intensity, making the ambassador back off slightly from the commando. She wore her medium weight armor proudly, the black and dark grey plating almost seeming to drink in light cast on it. The helmet seemed like someone combined a federation demolition trooper's facemask with a sallet-helm, though the face masks generally lacked the capping that jutted out from the brow of this particular helmet, or the gorget that also jutted out from her generally rounded chest-plate. He couldn't quite make out any weapon systems on her, though the glowing spots on her gauntlets and her chestplate seemed like good places to guess.

"Dagger is one of our more recent recruits. We found a bounty hunter of her talents to be wasted in freelance work after she demonstrated her abilities by infiltrating this of all places. She's quite the quick mover too, which is what lent her her nickname." Vzorag said as it scuttled past her, Dagger retracting her helmet to show a red haired, pale skinned woman with a prominent frown and a short pony-tail on her head, giving the ambassador a nod.

"Try to be careful sir." She said as the ambassador gave her an eyebrow quirk and quickly moved towards the next person. If this person had ever once been an organic being, he certainly didn't show it with the degree of cybernetic modifications he underwent. A helmet designed somewhat like a skull sans its lower jaw with pronounced fangs made up his head, the heavy bone white and charcoal grey armor having mostly rounded, organically styled plates; though flatter angled plates lay on top of the armor in certain areas like the chest and shoulders. Six mechanical limbs emerged from his back and folded themselves behind him while deadly looking weapons rested on his shoulders.

"So you're our man to get our war going then? Huh, you don't look like much." Razorblade said, advancing a little closer to the diplomat.

"I've never been much for politics, but war? Ah war's what I live for! When the Feds offered me a position here after seeing the kinds of hell I raised as a merc; there wasn't any damn way I'd turn it down. I haven't had this much fun in years." Razorblade chuckled while the ambassador just slowly backed away and bumped into someone else.

When he turned around to see who he ended up impacting; he saw a man in blue and gunmetal grey armor with noticeable jump-jets and a dangerous looking cannon attatched to his right arm. With his helmet down, the ambassador could see the strong, rectangular looking head of a man with a mustache-sideburn combo that seemed to have crawled out of the 19th century, his yellow hair accentuating a countenance that seemed to brim with excitement. The arm-cannon he bore retracted into the rest of his suit while he gave the Ambassador a quick bear hug before letting him go and slapping him on the back and laughing, the very wind being crushed out of the diplomat.

"The codename's Cyrux my boy, me, Razorblade, and the big chap founded this outfit. I shan't let Vzorag bore you with recountings of my great deeds however." He said in a loud, proud, deep and very upper class British accent, the grin on Cyrux's face being best described as "100% shit eating" by all accounts as he gazed down at the shorter man.

"I've smashed pirates, rebels, krikens, robots, wildlife infestations, the soldiers of all manner of lesser states and bested the best and brightest the universe has had to offer. As such, I'm always at liberty to try out the latest workings of our engineers." He continued, folding his arms and standing ramrod straight, looking down his nose at the ambassador.

"And the big chap there? That, is Adder." He said as the four meter tall even when hunched over brute turned towards him. Looking like a demon out of hell, the obsidian textured skin and the lava-like "veins" spreading across the sillicon based life form's body were just the first of many features that seemed positively diabolical. Horns like that of a bull sprouted from the sides of the monster's heads as a bestial, short but powerful, and skull like face leered down at the ambassador. Eyes like glowing, red-orange-white lava pits gazed upon the little human as a snarl like some sort of beast escaped its throat. A slightly protruding jaw filled with teeth and bristling with little mandibles on the side slavered open while great wings with membranes of orange and red crystal spread from his back, huge arms thicker than tree-trunks swaying as he turned on digitrade legs.

A thrashing barbed tail sprung from his back and spines sprouted from his back as clawed limbs brought Adder closer to the human; a fiery aura erupting to life and wreathing him, projected from things such as his eyes, mouth, horns, spines, "veins" and claws, a monstrous roar escaping from his throat as the Ambassador wanted to find anywhere he could to crawl under and hide, panicking as he fell on his back and skittered backwards, Adder easily keeping pace with him as he slammed his right hand down to cut off his escape. Even without battle armor, Adder just oozed terror and power in the same way that the space pirate's Ridley did; with the two even resembling different mythological monsters of Earth's distant past; he a Demon, him a Dragon.

"Hahahahaha, had you going there didn't I little guy?" He said as he reared back up, letting the ambassador stand on his feet again as he scoffed.

"No wonder why the Federation is letting it's enemies go to town, with bureaucrats like you at the helm we must be letting everyone and their dog walk all over us." He said, his voice; sounding like what one would get if one spliced together the rumbles of an erupting volcano, an earth-quake, and a fading thunder clap with the hiss of fire and steam and the crackle of sparking flint.

"But I don't begrudge you. We've got plans that will do wonders for the slump the Federation is in. We'll all be part of something great again, and not making sniveling, groveling deals with second listers." Adder snorted as he backed away, his fiery aura dying down.

"These are the best out of my elite units, easily the rivals of figures such as Kraid and Ridley. And they shall be my instrument of control against the Empire. All I need is a reason to start a war my dear ambassador. If we are to maintain the Federation's state of power, we will need to ensure that states such as Imaskara are in no state to threaten it. So tell me ambassador, will you stand with our march of progress, or will you insist on trying to see things through the wrong lights?" Vzorag said, looming over the Ambassador and pushing himself upwards on his insectoid legs, inscrutable compoud eyes staring right through the Ambassador.

"You guys are insane! I won't be a part of this!" The Ambassador said, shaking with fear at first before anger smothered his terror and his expression twisted to rage, prompting Vzorag to sigh. No, no he was all for containing the Empire's ambitions, but all this? This was insane, and he said as much.

"This isn't what the Federation is supposed to be you lunatics! I won't stand for it, I won't allow it! And this madness stops here! Just wait until I get a report out on this and none of you will be working anywhere near positions of authority again!" He shouted, his gesticulation passionate and almost frantic as he tried to convey his outrage in the clearest terms possible.

"Disappointing, but not unexpected. I suppose that you will have to meet our benefactor now instead of later. A pity, you could have been an asset to our cause. But I suppose that even in refusal; you will still be of value to us." Vzorag said, folding its arms as the sound of something big entering the room started up out of nowhere. He turned and saw a figure with four arms emerging from its sides, standing on two powerful looking legs. Armor with texture like stone scraped against the floor as eerie red lights emerged from the spaces between the armor plating, revealing circuit like meshes as it walked ever closer. A head...or perhaps a helmet almost like a crested bowl that connected to a heavily angular faceplate seamlessly; strips of optics aligning two inward sloping plates in a diagonal direction and a single purning red optic in the center of the flat forward plate gazed down at him. Two mantis-limb like projections from its shoulders were locked in a position so as to form a triangle around and behind the head and it simply walked implacably towards him.

He screamed and tried to run; but he felt force-fields wrapping around him; projecting from the being's armor as it lifted him into the air with these projected force fields, and with a single squeeze of the invisible barriers he felt no more.

* * *

_Zebes_

"Federation ambassador found dead, Federal Imaskarant Imperium blamed!" The Headline said as Old Bird furrowed his feathery brow at the news he had transferred directly from his mind from a Chozo device. The ancient Chozo tapped his beak as he went through the data now in his memories and shook his head.

"No, the truth is not being told here." He said to himself as he consulted with the memorized prophecies and his own treadings through the Skeins of fate. A devotion of a portion of his consciousness to examining the skeins again confirmed his worst fears, as his mind gazed upon the endless strands and paths of the futures of everything and anything, following the branching pathways of the planet of Cylosis in particular; he found that the paths in which Cylosis survived for another decade to be rapidly withering away; their probabilities shrinking and declining, while the strands of futures where the planet faced calamity from the Federation grew stronger and thicker.

"What concerns you old bird?" Grey Voice asked, the much younger Chozo putting a clawed hand on the shoulder of the wizened ancient who clasped his hands together and thought deeply on his divinitations. When the Chozo helped to form the Galactic Federation, the intention was for it to be an instrument of peace, but as the declining Chozo's ability and will to guide what they had created faded with the passing of millenia, so to did the Federation diverge from the intentions the Chozo had for it.

"I have come to believe that a war between the Imperium and the Federation is approaching the boundaries of inevitably at an ever increasing rate. One that it seems, will start with the destruction of Cylosis." Old Bird said, his ancient voice almost oozing with palpable disappointment. To think that it had come to this. He shook his head and closed his eyes as he thought on ways to avert it.

"And I suppose that the Federation will not listen to attempts to dissuade it from this course?" Grey Voice said, folding his arms into his robe's sleeves, looking down at the sitting Grey Voice who looked at his younger comrade for a moment before returning to his musings.

"No, simply presenting our divinitations as proof would not stand the rigors of their examinations. However, there might be hope of saving at least some of Cylosis' population if we speak to Aliborak and his Alimbics." Old Bird said as he rose to his feet. It was hard for much of anything of importance to escape the notice of the Chozo save for those occasions when others could block their own foresight. And while his abilities were not the match of the more mysticist Chozo of Tallon IV; whose own world had fallen to calamity and dragged their spectral forms out of their higher realm of existence and driven them to madness, Old Bird considered himself a master of the many mystic and psionic arts of the Chozo. And he would use every ounce of power he had available if it meant bringing about the end of war, of inequality, national barriers and all manner of bigotry and strife and injustice.

"That trumped up explorer captain? He has long been resistant to our requests to partake in our efforts. He is arrogant, conceited, cares little for the younger species and has decided to play at being a simple observer of events until he can rebirth his dead empire. He would let the whole system burn before lifting a finger to save one life, by the spirits; he'd probably let their whole empire be turned to nothing but dust before he helped." Grey voice snapped, he had met Aliborak once when the Chozo became aware of the survival of those Alimbics, but suffice to say; he thoroughly disliked his company.

"If he could save at least one life, it would be effort well spent." Old Bird responded, his voice stern, but not rising to the volumes Grey Voice's did.

"You still put your hopes in those prophecies don't you?" Grey Voice said, his anger leaving his voice and being replaced with concern and perhaps a bit of pity.

"The time of the ancients is long since past Grey Voice. Aliborak is as far as we know; the final remains of his kind who escaped Gorea. The remaining Luminoth are scattered, tiny bands of nomads across the stars or are dying on Aether where none can breach. The N'kren have all taken to sleeping away in their tomb worlds long ago and the Ylla's craftworlds have departed known space in a now barely remembered age. We ourselves have either met calamity or have departed this plane of existence, and our other former peers have fared little better." The ancient creature said, his tone mournful as he recounted the slow death of the prior generation of civilizations.

"We must leave behind a positive legacy, and individuals of this current generation of species who can set right what has become wrong and set in motion the shifts to something better is perhaps the best way to do it. We have been preparing for this since the end of the war; all of us have. So that those worthy enough to carry our legacies will have all they need to save the cosmos and perhaps more from sliding into the apocalypse. We shall seek a hatchling, they must seek a neophyte, and already the lost of the Diamonts walks among us." He explained, almost reaching out to give a chastising poke to Grey Voice.

"But can a handful, maybe even just three individuals; really bring about this change? Great shifts in society are made by the masses, not by individuals. Not without truly transcendent and thus dangerous levels of personal power." Grey Voice said, furrowing his brow.

"What some individuals can do is light the sparks of change. And there are many problems that can be confronted and defeated by inheritors of the warrior legacies of our passing generation. These actions will interact with the currents of society at large, providing just the right pushes so that our hopes for a better world may be realized." Old bird said as he began walking out of the room.

"Now come Grey Voice...we shouldn't tarry in our meeting with Aliborak." He said, turning towards his younger counterpart and providing as close to a smile as his beak could provide.

* * *

_Aliborak's ship, central chambers, Cylosis_

At the heart of Aliborak's ship was a sight that while once common, was now an incredibly rare event to behold. Until but a handful of years ago, no such event like this had occurred in two hundred thousand years. Now once again, Chozo and Alimbic met face to face. A simple telepathic communication across the void of space would have made it too easy for the Alimbics to simply back out from talks at their leisure; Aliborak had already abruptly cut off numerous long distance communications when they went directions he didn't care to countenance. To keep this meeting hidden from the natives of Cylosis, the Chozo had set up a teleportation system with the Alimbics, allowing for them to cross the gulf of whole galaxies in an instant to extend their greetings.

"Stubborn fool." Platinum Feather muttered as he eyed his counterparts. The long, lanky, insectoid and neckless beings who hovered in front of him seemed to regard him and the other Chozo with disdain. Why wouldn't they? Though the Chozo were immortal, they all looked tired and world weary. Their ancient, spindly bodies had persisted for aeons and their thoughts were saddened by bearing witness to the passage of their era and the end of their civilization as a relevant force. Little by little, the old empire decentralized into increasingly small communes, and one by one those communes shuffled out of the affairs of the cosmos, whether through simply leaving reality or known space behind, or were silenced through calamity. The Alimbics on the other hand? They were still possessed of an old, Imperialistic fire. That they had but a crew of some thousands to their name meant little; from this, a new empire could be born. Simply put, the Chozo were old, Aliborak's crew was young.

Seemingly picking up on his thoughts, old bird waved a hand at his companion. "Calm yourself old friend. We must guide ourselves across the rivers of Aliborak's temper with the steady hand of an experienced rower." Old Bird said, his ancient eyes then returning to lock gazes with the recently awakened Alimbic. Whereas most could scarcely read the expressions of the infamously stone faced alimbics who had little in the way of facial mobility, Old Bird had met with their kind in the distant past quite often, and had accustomed himself to the ways with which the Alimbics expressed themselves, picking up on little telepathic cues to take a stab at peering into the thought processes of his counterpart. He could sense Aliborak's condescension, Aliborak saw how Old Bird weathered the years and was not impressed.

"So then, Chozo, speak. What more wizened ramblings do you have for me? To think that in my millions of years of slumber someone as great as Shirisentan could become such a withered geezer." Aliborak said, folding his long arms and casting an intense glare at Old Bird, whose long; thin limbs carried his weight with a degree of humility that Aliborak found appalling.

"Perhaps I should have expected this from your kind; willingly abandoning empire and glory for the hopes of utopia; pah..." He said, scornfully flicking an arm in a dismissive wave at the Chozo.

"It's sad really; the people who broke the back of the Xik'krivik dominion and rescued civilization from slavery deciding to turn their focuses inwards and turn all their swords into plowshares. What a waste; we could have kept peace and order for all time and then your kind let misguided sentiment turn it all to ruin." Aliborak made a sigh, his voice formed by telekinetically vibrating the air to make the sounds he desired, not desiring mind to mind contact.

"And yet in time, even your own people decided they tired of war and conquest. They left the Federation in peace and were content to let the rest of the cosmos play out as it would." Old Bird said wryly, a coy spark in his eyes as he gave a riposte that was sure to throw his verbal sparring partner off balance.

"Bah, your kind must have infected the old empire with your softness. And had you perhaps been more militant; maybe our Empire wouldn't have disappeared? And perhaps if you let word of what slew our Empire out to these...primitives the creature could be dealt with once and for all." Aliborak said, his psychic voice barely constraining his anger at the Chozo for daring to make the presumptions he did.

"Gorea was impervious to all the weapons you had leveled at it and was only growing stronger as you fed it with the conflict it sought. Adding more fuel to a fire does not extinguish it, surely you would know that? And to let the current generation know of Gorea would only result in its release. Destroying the creature is not the work of armies; but of someone worthy to wield the one weapon it cannot adapt to." Old Bird said sternly before continuing on.

"And we scarcely could be said to be responsible for the Alimbic Empire's decision that it had no farther need of conquest. We simply showed them that there were places beyond this reality that could be attained. They came to the conclusion that the cosmos could handle itself without them on their own." He said, clutching his staff a little more closely.

"And what makes your kind so great? Many of your precious communes were purged by the great poison, including one in the very same system you call home. The Federation you have helped to create has been built on a foundation of sand and has seen numerous collapses and civil wars and you have allowed the Luminoth to dwindle until a war for one world threatens to reduce them to pockets of nomads and even your foresight cannot perceive what became of the Diamonts." He said with a voice filled with as much venom as he could muster.

"The Poison began to strike at us again in our twilight years and the venom proves elusive to our sight, and yet we have prepared ways for its ultimate destuction. And for all of its issues, the Federation continues to reform to address the issues that caused prior difficulties. And if we were to bring functioning ships to Aether, the darkness there would work to seize it and spread to the stars until all light was extinguished, the Luminoth told us as much when they refused our aid. And yes, the fate of the Diamonts remains a mystery to us, but the Skeins give me hope that they have not perished from the stars." Old Bird responded with a somewhat dismissive hand wave, recompense for Aliborak's earlier gesture.

"Before we continue this verbal fencing, we have not come here to exchange insults. We are here to ask that you aid the Imperium in its coming darkest hour." Grey Voice cut in with a loud harrumph.

"And why should I care about Cylosis or the rest of the Imaskarant Imperium? They could bring the force of thousands of supernovas to bear on this place at once and this ship would scarcely notice." Aliborak scoffed.

"We respect their wishes enough to accede to their demands of secrecy." Velgora pointed out, the female Alimbic turning her head towards her superior.

"Because it suits our purposes. We shall reveal ourselves when the time is right and not a moment before." He replied, his tone perhaps just a bit shaky.

"If you won't do it for the sake of altruism, then consider it for the sake of leaving behind a worthy legacy." Old Bird started, the Alimbics quickly turning back towards him.

"Save them to carry on your legacy, and among these people, one may even be the Neophyte we all foresaw. Already, the Lost is known to be Spire; surely you can see that the saga of the successors is starting to come to pass?" Old bird said, hoping to appeal to some part of their vanity. "Dark times are coming and we must do all we can to fortify the bastions of civilization against the looming tides of calamity. And I assure you that we cannot do it alone." He said, looking straight at Aliborak.

Before Aliborak could put his thoughts into word, the council became a flurry of thoughts and telepathic transmissions. Revisitings of the Skeins of the future were made, possibilities were examined and scrutinized. Whereas before, examinations were made on courses to restore the empire, new ones were made to see the likely general course of the future. The prognosis was grim, as they reached out to the Chozo to assist in their prognosis, they foresaw war blazing anew, corruption in high places, civil unrest on grand scales, poison spreading out of control, parasites and monsters running rampant, and the terrible grip of an old foe squeezing strands of possibilities like a vise.

With the aid of the Chozo conclave, the Alimbics felt a presence that had not been felt in millions of years and the sinister powers behind it, one that made all parties quail in fear more than all the other calamities combined. Whereas before this coil of destiny was very difficult to perceive, combined with the Chozo it was now becoming clearer. But for all the darkness, they saw rays of light; where the strands of some individual futures started to connect to more and more other fates, providing pathways through the darkness that could lead to the salvation of civilization itself. Spire was already identified, though the identities of the others remained hard to perceive. What was visible however, was that the strands of these Chozo would connect to one of these individuals, and the Alimbics would connect to another.

All at once, the examination of the possible paths of the future was halted and all participants returned to the the waking world. Before Aliborak could even speak, Ysedarog, another female member of Aliborak's crew, clad in forest green and purple armor; spoke for the council. "We will put this into strong consideration." She said as her mind spun from such a thorough examination of so many possibilities and the potential fates of so many beings.

"Thank you." Platinum Voice said with a nod, offering her a curt bow.

"Are there any other...matters of which you wish to discuss?" Velgora asked.

"Of course." Grey voice said, and while many more things were discussed by the Chozo and Aliborak's Alimbics that day, these topics always had less gravity to them than the one before.

* * *

Imperial Intelligence Network Logfile

Logfiles: Organizations: Paramilitary: Federation: FUCIN: RAITS: Elite Combat Groups: Dead Hand: Founded by RAIT agents Cyrux, Razorblade, and Adder; the Dead Hand represents one of many gatherings of "extraordinary individuals" whose talents and abilities are deemed so valuable to FUCIN's interests that they are recruited directly into its ranks and enjoy high places in its structure. While often portrayed as simply extremely skilled individuals; in actuality any member of the Dead Hand or other similar outfits is capable of operating well into supranormal parameters for their kind even before their enhancements. The Dead Hand is no exception. Adder, Razorblade, and Cyrux remain as the only members of the outfit who have stayed on it since its founding, with others having been replaced due to fatalities or being transferred to found their own outfits.

Most of the details on the Dead Hand are heavily classified and wrapped in secrecy; with little being known for certain. What is known is that they hold a tremendous degree of loyalty to FUCIN and are entirely willing to engage in operations that most of the federation would balk at. In terms of usage, they are essentially a Federation counter to the enforcers of the Space Pirates such as Ridley and Kraid; being used where single tremendously potent and capable individuals would prove to be substantially more useful than deploying an army or a large number of units and hired help is not considered a practical solution to the issue. Much like RAIT itself, the Dead Hand and similar units have attracted a substantial degree of controversy, with many seeing the likes of Adder as scarcely better than the infamous war criminal Ridley.

Logfiles: Individuals: Alive: Diabolrag: Male: Paramilitary: Federation: FUCIN: RAITS: Dead hand: Adder: A Diabolrag, Adder is the most commonly seen member of the rarely observed species. Large and vicious, Adder is often considered the Federation's answer to Ridley and joined FUCIN out of a belief that he would be able to find the fight he's always been looking for in the organization. Renown for his battlelust, Adder hungers for battle with a worthy opponent and deliberately throws himself into the thick of fighting for the sake of glorious battle, often to the annoyance of his superiors. However Adder is so skilled at his task that few dare suggest the idea of reprimanding him, and Adder is a powerful force within FUCIN itself. Known for his resemblance to demons of Terran mythology, the Sillicoid's rocky black body is marked with formations of red and orange crystals, thick and powerful horns, a barbed tail and large bat-like wings of crystal and a habit of appearing to the scene wreathed in flame.

Adder displays tremendous physical strength, enough to tear apart tanks and mechanoids bare handed, and is enormously physically resilient as the sillicoid's body can shrug off injury to degrees that surpass even most power suits. Adder is also capable of absorbing silicon based matter from his surroundings to repair his injuries or augment his body, forming crystalline and rocky armour on his body stronger than Denzium. Adder is known for being able to produce tremendous amounts of heat and his own bioplasma, creating it as either gouts of molten plasma or as plasma channeled electricity. Despite the apparent weight of his massive body, his crystalline wings are capable of sustaining flight, and through channeling plasma through them he is able to fly in space; where he seems unimpeded by the vacuum. At six meters tall, Adder doesn't seem like something capable of swift movement, but is a remarkably agile combatant. Outside of a handful of individuals such as Ridley, none have been able to match Adder in single combat.

Logfiles: Individuals: Alive: Unknown Species: Male: Cybernetic: Paramilitary: Federation: FUCIN: RAITS: Dead hand: Razorblade: What species Razorblade was before his total body cybernetic conversions is unknown, though most would figure him for a Human or Elfin. What is known is that Razorblade used to be a soldier who served in Federation special forces against a large array of enemies before suffering some manner of debilitating injury. Having to take cybernetic implantations, Razorblade turned to mercenary work to pay for ever more extravagant upgrades and soon became powerful and wealthy enough to amass his own private military corporation; the Cutthroats. He eventually came to the attention of FUCIN after being implicated in a plot to try and start a war for the sake of creating employment, and rather than being neutralized he was recruited into the organization, his mercenaries seemingly disbanding. Bombastic and cruel, Razorblade delights in picking on those weaker than he is, and does everything in his power to stack the odds in his favor. Also renown for his off color remarks, Razorblade has a particularly twisted sense of humor.

In combat, Razorblade prefers to fight in melee so that he can see the results of his handiwork up close and personal. Preferring a series of disruptor blades capable of scissor motions and protecting himself with deployable ballistic shields lowered from mechanical arms, Razorblade prefers an overwhelming defense and speed to overcome his opponents. Known for never fighting fair if he can help it, Razorblade also has high powered communication systems and a teleportation homer equipped to him at all times to call in reinforcements who can help wear down an enemy for him. Razorblade continually modifies his chassis, and so his full list of abilities are often difficult to ascertain.

Logfiles: Individuals: Alive: Human: Male: Paramilitary: Federation: FUCIN: RAITS: Dead hand: Cyrux: A thrill seeker of British descent, Cyrux was born as Cyrus Jones, born into a wealthy family of the British peerage, and started his career as a hunter of all manner of interesting fauna on exotic planets before starting to take up the Bounty Hunter and Mercenary trade to hunt after people for even greater challenge. Cyrux was known for a certain sort of nobility however, and went out of his way to avoid unnecessary loss of life and tended to go for capturing instead of killing enemies; letting them go if practical and if he wasn't taking a contract against them. Indeed he only pursued people he saw as corrupt or otherwise malicious, helping rebels overthrow petty dictators and helping to finance the rebuilding of their nation, freeing slaves from slaveholders outside free space, exposing the misdeeds of corporations and governments, and paying to have those orphaned as a result of his actions reimbursed and speedily sent to a guardian. His outlook changed after an encounter with Adder however, and he has hardened considerably since joining the RAITs.

While not engaging in the wanton slaughter and cruelty of some other members of the Dead Hand, Cyrux has far fewer qualms about collateral damage than he used to, adopting a "ends justify the ends" philosophy, believing that some cruelty now can be used to prevent more later. Cyrux utilizes all the skills he's learned as a hunter and does not box himself into any particular tactics, remaining a highly flexible and adaptable combatant and as such he is the member of the Dead Hand most likely to test out new weapon and power armor systems in battle. He is regarded as extremely dangerous and is one of the only three surviving founding members of the Dead Hand.

Logfiles: Individuals: Alive: Ssauruvik: Male: Paramilitary: Federation: FUCIN: RAITS: Dead hand: Veil: Veil has long been a member of FUCIN, having joined the RAITs decades ago after graduating from sniper school with impressive marks. Thoroughly cold blooded in his demeanor and his approach to war, Veil is cynical and caustic as well as tremendously patient. Willing to wait for days or even weeks for his target, Veil prefers to strike unseen and to do battle in prepared fields of his choosing; setting all manner of traps with his expertise in the utilization of all manner of devices and even mechanical traps. Also an expert in demolition, computer cracking, and sabotage, Veil was a natural fit for the Dead Hand. Veil is believed to be behind a large number of acts of sabotage, assassination, and espionage against the enemies of the federation, external or internal.  
Veil always carries the best in cloaking and stealth technology to let him slip in and out of position and prepare his battlefield of choice even in the midst of active combat. Though most famous for his skill with a sniper weapon, Veil is also highly skilled with explosives of all sorts, Shotguns, Assault rifles, pistols, and most smaller melee weapons and is highly proficient in the management of combat drones and mechanoids as well as commanding subordinates to either defeat an enemy themselves or make it easier for him to land the killing blow. However, Veil's armorsuits have generally been on the more frail sides, and while skilled in melee Veil struggles against its true experts without the advantage of the initiative in his favor.

Logfiles: Individuals: Alive: Jovian: Female: Paramilitary: Federation: FUCIN: RAITS: Dead Hand: Mercy: A shapeshifter and a psion, Mercy came to the attention of RAIT over the course of her career as a hit woman. Mercy is believed to have carried out over four hundred assassinations before RAIT recruited her as part of an organized crime busting operation. Seeing the writing on the wall, she quickly switched her allegiances and found her way into the dead hand in little time. Playful and energetic, rarely lets herself be seen taking her duties, or anything for that matter; all too seriously. While not known to be a sadist, Mercy takes combat to be like a game, and enjoys battle with enemies who can keep up with her incredible agility, and toys with her opponents to degrees that frequently cost her time, something that has earned her a number of scoldings from FUCIN command.

A highly skilled shapeshifter, Mercy is a master infiltrator and is exceptionally socially deft, mingling among crowds with ease. Through her psionic abilities, she is perhaps the perfect spy, as she can use the information she garners from mind reading to flawlessly adopt the mannerisms of her targets and pass any memory tests usually used against shapeshifters. This also makes her highly skilled at information gathering, but in combat she prefers to utilize her psychic abilities in large displays of energokinesis and telekinetics, as most such enemies she really does have to try against are highly resilient against telepathic intrusion or control. She will continually move around to prevent enemies from getting solid hits on her, and freely switch from close quarters to ranged combat and back again, though she prefers to keep combat ranges within a hundred meters.

Logfiles: Individuals: Alive: Mechanoid: Masculine Programming: Paramilitary: Federation: FUCIN: RAITS: Firebug: More properly called a program rather than an individual, Firebug provides much of the heavy firepower for the Dead Hand with a chassis literally riddled with weapons. Purposefully designed by FUCIN, Firebug plays the part of a humble and modest soldier's soldier who just follows orders to the best of their ability without thinking too hard on the morality. Programmed to be the ur-patriot, Firebug is also known for trying their best to promote the Federation and its proposed values, which has caused some confusion in Firebug as they struggle with the core of their values and the RAIT's many actions that contradict such beliefs. However, Firebug pushes these concerns aside to instead focus on the virtues of duty and loyalty, whether it's right or wrong.

In combat, Firebug tends to utilize heavy specially built mechanoid platforms. Though fitted with powerful melee systems, primarily power fists, Firebug mostly does combat at range. Realizing that a heavy dependence on sheer size and firepower can be a weakness, Firebug is also capable of deploying a much more agile secondary chassis based on predatory quadrepeds, capable of engaging enemies lethally in melee while the main body lays down fire support. Though Firebug's secondary body is sent far off on other missions and thus leaving the main body to function on its own, something that Firebug has lodged a number of complaints about. Firebug's primary body fights much like a tank, and should be conisdered as an especially powerful armoured fighting vehicle in terms of tactics to counter his combat abilities.

Logfiles: Individuals: Alive: Alteraii: Female: Paramilitary: Federation: FUCIN: RAITS: Magistera: After an accident while exploring a wormhole, the child prodigy Magistera has become capable of incredible speed, augmented even further by her suit which in tandem allow her to outrun most standard magnetic rounds with ease. The grey skinned humanoid naturally soon came to the attention of RAIT as she utilized her abilities and her self created suit to try and make a name for herself as a hero; and under a combination of threats to family members, massive monetary enticements, and appeals to her sense of justice she joined the Dead hand in short order. Though not entirely pleased to be in the RAITs, she still preforms her duties to the best of her ability in an attempt to ingratiate FUCIN to her. Youthful and idealistic, she tries her best to stay away from the more shady aspects of the organization she works with and tends to avoid the company of more vicious members such as Razorblade or Mercy.

In combat she utilizes her enormous speed and reflexes to get the advantage over most enemies, reserving her full speed for powerful sonic boom dashes that devastate enemies around her. She utilizes a combination of thrown weapons and pistols and wrist mounted devices primarily, eschewing most heavier weapons for the effects they can have on her drag profile. Magistera is however not the most skilled of combatants and is prone to making mistakes or rushing to certain conclusions and judgements. She also has issues with distractions and focus, and is known for impatience. However her abilities still make her among the most dangerous combatants in known space.

Logfiles: Individuals: Alive: Human: Female: Paramilitary: Federation: FUCIN: RAITS: Dagger: A FUCIN agent brought in to the RAITs and Dead Hand, Dagger had a comparatively normal life before joining with the FUCIN out of a desire to supplement her earnings for her family. She found herself to be highly talented in combat operations, and was soon subjected to a super soldier treatment and given a suit of armor capable of temporary cloaking and teleportation. Her skills were sufficient that in time she was invited into the Dead Hand, and after seeing the income offered; was glad to accept. However Dagger's sense of morality chafes at the more unstable natures of many of her colleagues and she doesn't much like to be around a number of them. Her status as the newest member of the Dead Hand also makes her feel even more at unease with her accomplices, and she finds it difficult to integrate with the rest of the team.

Dagger primarily utilizes very short ranged combat, using her ability to hide and her ability to teleport to quickly make her attacks and head out before anyone can retaliate against her. Sociable and well adjusted, she is also frequently utilized in any situations that require a gentle touch, and is broadly skilled with virtually all weapons common to special forces operations and is highly skilled at infiltration. Combined with her hit and run tactics, her skill at keeping herself out of sight allows her to keep up her strength while she slowly needles even the hardiest of enemies to death, and she has a noted gift for small unit tactics and dealing with power suit clad enemies.

* * *

AN: And the award for most delayed update in history goes to...

Yeah, I'm like...completely and utterly sorry for taking so long. If it's in your capacity to forgive me at all, then I beg of it! I promise to work faster from now on so that I can get this project finished before we get a metroid prime 4 for real.

But thanks to Mental Omega for helping me get back on track! You're a trooper man!


	3. Kindling

"_Intelligence agencies must learn to manipulate everyone, even their own states, for the good of the people they serve."_ \- Director Vzorag

* * *

_Cylosis, Chancellery_

"It's not the best job...but it's a job." Spire rumbled tiredly as he stood in the gardens of the chancellery, Cylosis' blue sun glaring down on top of him. Ever since he came out of stasis only to find himself totally and utterly alone, he'd been looking for his people...but he needed money. The methods with which he used to search for some trace of his vanished kind needed financing and he found few better ways to do it than as a mercenary. He was tremendously strong and well equipped with the cache of gear he managed to take, and as he had been a commando before his cryo-freeze, he had the training to do it. Still, serving as some kid's bodyguard didn't sit too well with him.

"What a waste" He sighed, sillicon dioxide filtering out of his two and a half tonne frame. He was pulled out of his thoughts by someone tugging at his legs, and he looked down to see Sigmund looking up at him with a wide smile.

"Hey there." Spire said in the friendliest (to human ears) voice he could manage. The little guy definitely seemed to take the nine foot tall Diamont's presence in stride, he thought as he kept his blazing orange eyes focused on the wide; curious expression of the human toddler.

"How's it going little guy?" He said, kneeling down to be at a more even height with the small child.

"Can you really turn into a ball?" He said, almost grinning as Spire looked around and noticed Sigmund's other friends gathering around, whispering to one another as they watched expectantly. Sigmund himself had heard of Spire's ability to curl up into his Dialanche form, but now that the bounty hunter was here; he absolutely had to see it for himself. The boy already idolized bounty hunters, and being in the presence of one who was rapidly establishing a reputation as being one of the best was almost a dream come true for the little dukeling.

Sensing that he had little chance of dissuading the bouncey little boy; especially not with his "Can I see it, canIcanIcanI pleaaaase?" going off in rapid fire mode; Spire decided that he may as well.

"Alright, but I'm going to need you to stand back. Get too close and I might just squash you." He said, with Sigmund and his friends responding with quick "Okays!" as they stood well away from the hulking Diamont. Then he jumped into the air and quickly bent his upper body over, folding his arms towards his leg and reshaping his body into a spherical shape. He rolled backwards, forwards, then clear out of the way of anything that could be harmed and let his rocky exterior fly off of his crystalline interior, spinning around him like a circular saw a few times before recombining on his interior, then finally found a wall he thought no one would mind if he scaled and rolled up the surface, the spikes of the dialanche sticking into it as he climbed it, then finally he released and transformed back into his humanoid form, activating his jump systems right before he hit the ground to soften his impact.

"That good enough for you?" He said, standing up out of his kneel and shaking his head as he did so, straightening himself up and letting the kids get closer to him.

"YES! YES! YES! That was so cool!" Sigmund said, clapping his hands and bouncing on his shoes. Spire brought his orb carrying arm onto Sigmund's shoulders, trying to contain his excitement by preventing him from jumping up and down so much.

"Easy there, you're going to hurt yourself if you keep that up." Spire said, gently rebuking the boy.

"Sorry Spire." He said, holding his hands behind his back and rocking back and forth on his shoes. So fragile looking, Spire thought, even more so than other humans; their offspring at this stage of development looked so very...vulnerable. He could understand why the Chancellor hired him out to protect him, something so small and fragile needed to be looked over carefully. And the earnest smile he gave him with those mischevious red eyes of his were always endearing to look at.

"Kids...not a cynical crystal in their interiors." He said to himself as the armed guards of the chancellery saluted the young Schirmer as they marched on patrol through the gardens, Sigmund giving his own response before giggling as the patrol group marched on past them.

"With all this security, me being here seems a bit overkill." Spire said, Sigmund looking up to him with a puzzled look before Spire gestured towards some of his friends, with the boy nodding and running off to play in the gardens with them; giggling and shouting ensuing.

"It's because you can never be too sure with protecting children, especially when they're the children of public figures." Said a feminine mechanical voice that made Spire quickly turn around to see the source indicated on his HUD's radar.

"Oh, when did you get here?" Spire asked as the stony behemoth turned around to look, finding a two legged, tall; blue and green drone with a head rather like an armet helmet helmet; save for the visor being occupied by a long, thin screen and with two slanted antennae emerging from the temples of its helmeted like head. Humanoid arms sprouted from its shoulders, and the whole combination of features seemed very much intended to evoke a futurized update on the concept of knights.

"I always ensure that master Schirmer the younger is always within easy reach, Spire. You nver know when he might need something." The machine said, turning her head towards Sigmund as he beaned one of the other children, a black haired girl; in the side of the head with a plush ball, an "Ow!" coming out of her as he giggled. Then she returned his focus back to Spire.

"To be in the limelight is to also be in the crosshairs." The machine said, folding her arms behind her back.

"Yeah I suppose you could say that Sylan." Spire said, looking skywards briefly and shaking his head. Then he turned back to the machine. "You know, he said he wanted to be a mercenary like me when he grows up. " Spire said, almost chuckling a bit. It seemed kind of hard to imagine people so small and defenseless as hunters in any capacity really. "Seems a bit far-fetched of a dream to me." Spire said, turning his focus back to Sylan.

"While I struggle to imagine a scenario where Siegfried; nevermind Elsha would approve of Sigmund becoming a freelancer, I think you're underestimating the boy somewhat. It's rather hard to judge what manner of person someone will become based on what they are this young." Sylan said, turning entirely towards Spire. "But I do think that whatever he will be, he will do the family name proud." Sylan said, the screen on her face making sine waves corresponding to the sounds she made.

* * *

_Night time_

Star gazing was an activity shared by countless cultures and that which had developed on Cylosis was no exception. Sigmund excitedly followed his parents out into the open world, a wide grin on his face as telescopes were set up on the grassy plateau, their personal hovercraft lying some distance away from the Schirmer family and those who had followed them on the trip; the friends and extended relatives of the Schirmer family and their omnipresent body guards had followed them onto the heights of the plateau.

The devices brought out to witness the skies of Cylosis were many and varied, but Sigmund had a preference for the holoscope; which projected what it saw from its lenses out for the viewing pleasure of others. Currently, Sigmund looked excitedly at the projection of the Gas Giant being shown, the behemothic planet's majestic blue exterior and stately ring system looming large in holographic form; moons happily moving in the positions gravity set out for them.

"What's it called?" Sigmund asked, looking up at Elsha who held his hand, the boy turning his eyes towards her as the Gas Giant, Typhoria, rotated slowly in its projection form.

"Typhoria; our largest planet." She said with a smile, squeezing his hand as she pointed to where the telescope was gazing, singling out a small dot among all the stars of the sky, Cylosis' large Mars like moon, the other planets and assorted other objects travelling the lanes of space, and the great cloudy bands of the galaxy they were in.

"Why's it so big?" He asked.

"When the planets here were born, Typhoria just ate the most, and when there was nothing left to eat; none of the other planets could get any bigger. So it stayed the biggest." She explained before he pointed at a black spot that slowly churned its way across the surface of the planet.

"And what's that?" He asked, poking the hologram.

"That is the eye of Hramanik, it's a very big storm, you could fit our planet in there." She said with a smile, clasping her hands together.

"We're not gonna go there right?" He asked, skittishly making twisting motions with his feet.

"Oh no, you'd never have to worry about that." She said, running her hands through his hair as he let a little giggle.

"Why?" He asked, looking up at her with a little grin.

"Because we would stop anyone who tried, we worked very hard to make sure that you will always be safe Sigmund." She said before reaching over to him, Sigmund raising his arms as she grasped him and easily lifted him up.

"Oh, someone's starting to get heavier." She said as she bounced him a bit in her arms.

"When will I be able to get big like you and dad?" Sigmund said as he idly nibbled at a thumb, Siegfried stepping in a mere moment later.

"I'm certain you're going to be as tall as I am when you're sixteen." He said, ruffling Sigmund's silky silver hair as he made the quick math, counting with his fingers.

"Awww, but that's gonna be forever!" He whined before giving a hearty pout.

"When you're older you'll find the years going by faster Sigmund. You will be sixteen before you realize it." Siegfried chuckled.

"Ugh…" Sigmund complained, folding his arms and huffing.

"There, there." Elsha said, kissing the top of his head.

"To us you will always be our knight in shining armour." She said, smiling at him as he looked up and returned the gesture.

"And how, praytell; are you taking the task of educating him upon yourself?" Came a voice that made Elsha and Siegfried flinch as they turned towards the source.

"Aliborak." Siegfried said, his voice immediately taking a much more weary tone as he sighed and resigned himself to yet another conversation with the insufferable Alimbic.

"At this point I wish your kind stayed extinct." Siegfried muttered under his breath as the Alimbic turned his unflinching gaze to little Sigmund and briefly dimmed the glow on the outer edges of its eye, the Alimbic equivalent of a squint.

"Teaching him about the stars then?" The Alimbic said as he looked at the hologram while the guards kept their weapons at a constant and close watch on the ancient being.

"Yeah! We come here every week! I learned a lot!" He says with a little giggle as Aliborak looked at the Hologram. It was certainly photorealistic and it did give a good impression of the features of Typhoria, with readouts for data Sigmund almost certainly couldn't stand alongside it.

"How did you get here anyway?" Siegfried asked, stepping forward and looking up at the hugely tall Alimbic and his companions, the others gathered around focusing on their own works into the field of amateur astronomy.

"I had set up a teleportation system to take me anywhere on this planet I desired. Currently returning to the ship is more difficult, but I am certain that the incomparable genius of our kind will find a way to work with our limited resources." He said, placing a hand on his chest.

"Are you going to scare him again?" Elsha said, still scarcely forgiving him for his first encounter with her son.

"By the spirits no. I have no intention of purposefully frightening your offspring." Aliborak said, giving a quick gesticulation neither Sigmund nor his parents could understand the significance of.

"And we will ensure that we do not frighten him unintentionally either." Velgora added, turning from her superior to the trio of humans.

"Do I have your word on it?" Elsha said, her gaze still cold and hard, unbowed by the strange and Kriken like countenance of the Alimbics. They may have been living representatives of an old and powerful race, but she was not only Cyaranar; but also a mother who took her duties quite seriously, none who sought to get between her and her son ever avoided regretting it later.

"You have my honour, human." Aliborak said, giving her a curt nod.

"What is the meaning of this visit, if you don't mind me asking?" Siegfried cut in, waving his hand as he sought to get to the bottom of this. He had known these beings long enough to figure out that generally, when they ventured out of their cloistered ship they did so with a purpose.

"Simple. We had found ourselves desiring to learn more of our hosts than what could be gleaned through simple analysis." He said, before a psychic reminder from Velgora drew his attention to the rather plainly obvious boredom on Sigmund's face.

"We wanted to see what this world was like for ourselves." He said, earning him a small nod from Sigmund as he chewed on his thumb again.

"Alib…Ali…" Sigmund said as he tried to get the pronunciation right before defaulting to his usual nickname "Uncle Stretch" he said, referring to how stretched out Aliborak always looked to him.

"Yes?"

"How did the stars get there?" He said.

Such a simple question with such a deep answer, Aliborak thought as he turned the telescope to a nebula, the colourful wisps of gas shining brilliantly in the hologram.

"When a star dies, it casts out its outer layers which form clouds that can become new stars when they clump together. The very first stars though; came from clouds of gas left there by the beginning of time. But it is from this dust that all other things could live. We are all stardust." Aliborak said, registering that a lot of the concepts probably flew over the boy's head, but giving him a pat on it anyway.

But in that nebula under the auspices of the telescope, a drama far more violent than the birth of new stars and planets from the corpses of old ones was unfolding.

* * *

_Imperial Interdiction station Yurkonuz Plural ZZ_

Adder growled as he trudged through the halls of his target vessel. The interdiction station was a large, imposing and baroque edifice floating in the Turonola Nebula, its defenses were many layered and strong and the Imperium had always considered attacks on facilities like these to be likely. "Alright troopers; this facility is the first line of defense for Cylosis, from it they can project a large interdiction field that can detect then cut off non-permitted faster than light travel for a kiloparsec in every direction. This means that as long as it's up, no attacks in force can be made on the planet." Adder said, his voice like the rumbling of a volcano's magma chamber.

"These hijacked supply ships should get us close enough to board but once we're inside we're going to have to fight our way in the instant those ramps drop. Once inside, Mercy will have already cut off their comms giving us just enough time to get in and adjust the field to let our forces in and keep theirs out. You are not, under any circumstances, to destroy the place. You have all been assigned your units and given your objectives. Do not expect Federal reinforcements until the field is adjusted. Review your briefing material from there and preform to your absolute limits. The Federation expects nothing less than total victory." Adder snarled into the comms, greeted with a return chorus of "affirmative!"s.

"Not much for inspirational speeches are you?" Magistera smirked, fangs showing as her lips curled into a smile, Adder sparing her a brief glance before turning back to the display.

"They don't need inspiration, just a clear picture of their objectives and the tools for them. Their morale's already high and pumping them up too much will make them try something stupid. If they need a hammy speech to have some stones then I'm gonna have to wonder why they're in the RAITs in the first place." He said with a heated snort.

"You know a lot of them won't make it." Magistera said, folding her arms and looking at some of the troops waiting around for the moment of truth in the holds of the ship.

"Casualties can be minimized by a good head for planning. They can't be eliminated unless one side is so outmatched or outplayed they didn't have any business being there in the first place. The guys who survive will be stronger for it and there's plenty of people eager to replace the ones who don't."

"Eyeing any new recruits into the dead hand?" Magistera said wistfully as she leaned against the nearest wall.

"Oh I've got a few in mind, don't you worry miss." Cyrux said as he walked into the room, beckoning them to follow him as a "prepare for landing" message flashed across the HUDs of each of the troops inside the ship.

"No chance of the runts yelling right?" Razorblade asked as he stood up out of his seat and made his way to the exit of the ship.

"Mercy's given the word; we are ready and rearing for the scrap ahead." Cyrux said as he waited for the ship to dock in its moorings. With a quick flashing message saying "exit immediately" the four saw the door dilate outwards and the ramp lowering itself into an open position where dark blue and dark violet clad guards stood at attention for just a few moments before realizing something was terribly off.

Faster than any unaugmented human could progress, affixed turrets emerged from the ship and opened fire on the procession of guards while RAIT troopers quickly let out withering barrages of mini-missiles from their assault launcher guns, sending Imperial troops spiraling towards the ground as shielding and armor failed. Adder shot out of his door like an artillery shell, wings spreading as he sought his targets, guards opening up on him with Ion rifles that sent ear piercing bolts of glowing blue electron stripped atoms through the air, only some making contact with him and being promptly ignored as he cast his right arm forward and sent molten streams of plasma from crystals on his wrist. Some of the armet-esque helmed troops managed to avoid the plasma streams, but others were reduced to ash and vapor where they stood, others finding the platforms they were standing on melt, warp, and twist until they gave out beneath their weight.

* * *

Cyrus quickly moved towards the door the plans he had informed him of being closest to the door, taking aim at a digitrade, long necked and segmented tail possessing Imperial trooper who tried to bring a heavy weapon into place; setting up the large barrel of the weapon atop a tripod; or he would have if a quick barrage of micro-missiles hadn't blasted the unfortunate soldier backwards to fall in a bloody heap, a number of battlehammer rounds following up and crashing around the other soldiers in the squad while he leaped over their battlements and slammed down on top of a human imperial trooper. "Do try to keep up lads." Cyrux said, firing a quick orange ovoid sphere of energy at the door to open it.

Razorblade pushed a heavy combat drone off of one of his blades while others lay dead around him in heaps from the lethal attentions of the weapons on his six mechanical limbs, Magistera walking away from a squad of soldiers whom she had tripped the grenades of faster than they could register, not even flinching as they exploded messily. "They better have something better than this litter of squealers because so far this op's been a snooze." Razorblade said boredly, idly cutting a soldier he noted trying to crawl away's head off with a single easy swing; carving through the shieldless soldier with no trouble at all.

Adder, finding himself too large for the door, simply smashed and melted his way through, leaving the human sized dead hands to enter the hallway where a fusilade of Ion weapons held by soldiers in good positions were waiting, filling the room with blue bolts and lobbed grenades. "Hang on, I got this." Magistera said with a feral grin, but before she could, a door to the left of the barricade of soldiers was opened and a rapid series of Galvinic assault cannon pulses followed by a great green glob of highly radioactive plasmic fluids followed suit, the soldiers caught off guard and cut down with a handful of grenades finishing off the job, a lanky, somewhat human sized and clearly heavily armed robot with a spherical "head" stepping forward, flipping its modular galvinic repeater back into its arm and storing the rad-plas gun away in its chest, the weapon detaching from its other arm and shrinking as it the space it occupied was compressed inside the machine's interior.

"Ah, one of the hopefuls. A pleasure to meet you Executor Alpha." He said as the machine rotated its head to the suited human and offered a slight nod.

"My apologies for not arriving earlier, I had to take a detour due to needing to aid platoons C1, E3, and AO3. I trust my ambush was satisfactorily laid out?" The machine said in a monotone voice following a low pitched digitzed chirp.

"Keep up with that performance and you'll fit in in no time my boy." Cyrux said, offering the mechanical bounty hunter a clap to the shoulder that shifted it forward before it adjusted for the sudden transferrance of force.

"Of course."

* * *

Adder tore yet another drone from the sky, claws having cracked their way through the shielding and gouging into the heavy aerial combatant's metallic hide and gouging deep furrows before he tore it open and slammed his right hand into its power core, pushing himself off of it as it spiraled towards the ground while his great wings beat to carry him upwards, bringing him into line of sight with another short cut to his route. He looked at the ledge that led to an internal station metro-train system and noted yet more hostiles waiting for him. Imperial troopers with metallic shields projecting energy barriers around themselves, resting their weaponry atop the shields and ready to open fire.

Missiles and ion pulses came out in a great volley, ranging from small fist sized bolts of particles to bolts larger than a torso launched by soldiers in heavy battlesuits wielding large arm cannons firing overcharged blasts. Adder let out a quick barrage of plasma streams from the crystals in his body and even a gout of burning matter from his mouth to intercept the missiles right before he broke his line of sight to start a loop to get the momentum he needed for his next trick.

"Take it down immediately! Get everything you can on him!" One of the soldiers said in a gurgling voice punctuated by mandible clicks. But Adder launched himself into velocities faster than his own sound could go many times over, and he slammed into largest group of soldiers he could, energy charged in his body releasing itself as a fiery shockwave that advanced all around him with a thundrous cacaphony.

"Quick, not quick enough." Adder said as he grabbed one of the three meters tall battlesuits by the head, the almost medieval-esque helmet's angled slopes and curves feeling the pressure as his heat rapidly burned through the shielding before it finally gave way. Lifting his foe over his head and hurling it to knock some of the Imperial Guardians over the ledge to fall, Adder made short work of his remaining enemies with a follow up volley of shockwaves as he repeatedly slammed his hands into the ground. With nothing but wreckage around him, he launched himself once again and smashed through the door to enter the transport tunnel.

"+Adder here. Enemy forces are withdrawing on all fronts. I'm making my way through the transport rail systems to the target, over.+"

"+Get to the target quickly, the longer we delay, the more marines the fleet can land. We cannot afford delays.+" Veil hissed annoyedly.

"+Relax, I've got this.+"

* * *

Dagger pushed the corpse of a combat engineer off of a heavy manned turret, a hole in the engineer's head as she slumped to the ground lifelessly. Dagger shook her head and sighed as she eyed the next target and engaged in a short ranged teleport onto the optic cluster of a six legged combat hexapod drone, the multi-ton machine's rotary cannons, plasmic gas caster, and missiles all firing away with wild abandon before Dagger eyed the mechanisms of the rotary cannon and placed claw bombs on the plasmic gun before starting another teleport to get out of the area. She looked back for a second and then nodded as the drone exploded, letting heavy RAITs move forward to put Imperial Guardians in threat range of their magnetically accelerated guns while skittering; blade limbed attacked drones leaped out of the RAIT lines and into the Shield carrying Guardians to start their bloody work.

She sighed into the comms and briefly flinched when a voice crackled at the other side. "+Dagger, remained focused and steel your nerves.+" Veil chastised over the line as an assault drone on the Imperial side's head suddenly exploded into shrapnel with a loud crack and slammed into the ground with a somewhat less loud crash, Veil's marksmanship remaining as impeccable as ever.

Internally, Dagger couldn't help but wonder how many of these people would be leaving someone to be bereaved with their passing. So many people who woke up today without any idea that soon they were going to be slaughtered in a sneak attack. It weighed on her, and it refused to leave her mind even as Veil chastised her.

"+Sorry sir, just lost in thought.+" Dagger said as she teleported to the next target, taking a look at some security systems and taking a quick inhalation to try and help her focus on cracking the system to get the door open. The troopers caught off guard by her sudden arrival included a number of aerotroopers who took to the skies with their flight packs to try and gun down the dead hander, only for a firestorm of weapons fire to emerge from Firebug as he offered up a massive stream of covering fire.

"Come on, let's have some fun you." Firebug said as the flying soldiers and drones wheeled around to exchange fire with firebug, setting them up to be picked off by Veil.

Twisting to the left as her systems warned her of someone aiming at her from behind, letting a judicator blast strike to the left and leave the telltale signs of metal exposed to extreme cold, but she didn't turn away to deal with the new threat; so busy was she with her splicing efforts; her suit and her mind working in tandem to break the security systems of the Imperial station.

Her HUD's radar warned her of incoming enemies moving at her with high speed, most likely assault troops. dropping from a hovering transport flying through the extremely spacious interior of the space station and hitting the ground with the intention of striking at her with Plas-halberds, particle-mauls, or a one handed ranged and melee weapon or some other means of dealing her hurt at close range.

"+Need some help guys.+" She said with a sense of urgency in her voice as she checked her radar and counted the seconds before the assault troops got into range with her.

"+On the way.+" She heard as one of the Imperial aerogunships flew through the air with a trajectory that could only take it on a collision course with the ground. The troops advancing on her suddenly started slowing down as the incoming gunship approached ever closer, then came a triumphant roar as the craft slammed into the ground; detonated and scattered numerous enemy troops, and hitting the ground moment later was yet another potential recruit into the dead hand. Her heavy olive drab and hunter green armor and her reinforced, frogmoutht like helmet making her nearly impossible to miss even as Firebug and the RAIT troopers held back attempted Imperial reinforcements.

Equipped with extremely bulky and heavy armor, a shield over the left arm and a heavy hammer carried in the other, the hunter crushed one of the assault troopers beneath her before smashing him apart with a single blow of her weapon. Turning around, the newcomer shifted her weight forward, smashed into one of the assault troopers in their midsection to floor the four armed aliens and smash the head of her energy charged and gravitically accelerated weapon into the chest of the alien to scatter the shields before a second blow crushed him to paste. With more enemies incoming, the large pauldrons of the suit shifted as missiles kept in racks on the back of the suit moved on top of her shoulders and let loose; explosions rippling across the enemy's lines while her shield was used to block an incoming charged ion blast. Dagger took a moment to look over her shoulder and grimaced...ah this woman.

With the mass of particles exploding against the shield and disappating, she willed her suit to adjust as the weapons she wielded withdrew to allow her to bring out two sets of energy wreathed laws from her gauntlets. With so many enemies who were left standing from the missile barrage stripped of shielding, it was a simple matter for her to rush in and carve her opposition into cauterized ribbons. One went down as she glanced their halberd strike against her shielded vambrace before bringing her other arm around the claws stabbing through his head and incinerating his brain. Another was felled as their right arm was cut off at the elbow after she used a quick batting strike to knock the energy scythe arm upwards and into the range of her other clawset and their guts were allowed to spill open from a disemboweling slash as they reeled from the cut. A third shoulder checked out of an attempted jet assisted charge and then cut vertically in half with an uppercut and the last one standing headbutted and then simply stabbed through the chest and slammed into the wall until they expired.

"+Your coast should be clear Dagger. You're welcome by the way, after all I did just pull your ass out of the fire and got all the best kills to myself.+" The bounty hunter said as she brought her prior set of weapons out of her suit once again.

"+Thanks Yuran.+" Dagger said with a quick sigh. "And please stay as far away as you can from me." She muttered under her breath.

* * *

Adder prepared to smash his way through yet another series of walls before a wide number of doors immediately started swinging open, Mercy standing at the end of them and folding her arms as she gave him a sly grin under her helmet. "Took you long enough." She said with a playful scoff as Adder stepped forward and worked his jaw briefly.

"I'd have expected more resistance." He said as he scanned the empty room.

"That you can thank these three for." She said, gesturing to two more hopefuls. Mender, whose eyecatching orange and white armor was both quite form fitting for the woman and clearly designed for extended and agile flight, a helm like a fighter pilot with decorative wings coming from the temples adorning the design. To the other side was a figure who was quite clearly a cyborg, Xirgan; the four armed being being skilled with an array of weapons but being most comfortable with one handed devices such as pistols and swords that complimented his agile fighting style. His exoskeleton seemed to come in two colours, field grey and darker grey, and the red eyepieces of the short, viperfish like head constantly stared out.

Then she gestured to the being who had killed the unfortunate ambassador previously, who stood amidst a great pile of the dead and was seemingly effortlessly splicing through the security protocols of the Imperium to shift the targets of the interdictor field.

"Impressive." Adder said, clacking his jaw together as he observed the carnage left by the other hunters.

Finally, the earth armored being stopped inputting commands and all throughout the station, the defenses that had been waiting to aid the Imperials defending the station turned on their owners. With the interdictor field now allowing federation ships through; the RAIT assault fleet was now able to reap a bloody tally on the Imaskarant flotilla, who were left with no means of escape and thus could do little but die.

"I'd call that mission accomplished." Mender said as she dusted off her vambraces.

"Agreed. I'll put in a good word for all of you." Adder said.

* * *

_FUCIN headquarters_

"+The primary interdictor field guarding Cylosis has been breached and Xon'kro'yuk says that his systems will allow us to push through the localized system interdictors of Cylosis without any problems.+" Mercy said, her holographic form standing at attention before Vzorag, hands folded behind her back.

"You have performed admirably. Thanks to your efforts, the assault on Cylosis can begin and be ended before Cyrenea has any time to properly respond. I expect you all to help lead the assault, nothing should be left to chance." Vzorag said, clacking his fingers together.

"+Of course sir. What should we do with the civilians on Cylosis when we get there?+" Mercy asked.

"It's a rather unfortunate truth that we will need to make sure they are all dead. We need to minimize the number of records that can potentially contradict our statements and that will include eye-witnesses. I have thought long and hard about this, but I believe the only option is the terracide of Cylosis' population. It will become a rallying cry for the whole of the Imaskarant Imperium yes, and it will be tremendously controversial in our own populace, but the alternative is to allow the risk of the Imperium to get whatever it wants by freely studying their Alimbic toys and potentially bringing about the destruction of the Federation."

"+Not worried about starting a war?+" Mercy said, tilting her head as she asked the question while Vzorag remained as still as ever.

"I am prepared to accept the consequences if it comes to that, but I believe that if we prove that Siegfried was acting as a rogue agent and combine it with some "evidence" of aggressive attacks on the Federation and then demonstrate that there is no direct Federal responsibility. Say that this was the action of for example; a renegade general and we provide the evidence, make sure that the Imperium's intelligence arm is too busy with other issues to trace our movements. we should be able to get away with a simple major international incident." Vzorag said, his centipede like face tendrils writhing as he spoke.

"+Devious, aren't you?+"

"I took an organization that was repeatedly infiltrated at nearly every turn by its enemies and built it into one of the most effective intelligence arms in the universe. You don't get to the top of the intelligence community without some measure of shrewdness and cunning or a willingness to compromise on some principles for the greater good."

"+Of course sir.+" She said with a nod.

"And Mercy, try to be safe, it'd be a shame to lose someone like you." He said, the tone to his voice friendly.

"+Will do.+"

* * *

Imperial Intelligence Network Logfile

Logbook: Hunters: Federation Aligned: Human: Female: Mender: Mender was born on the space station Esrasdran to a pair of spelunker parents. Soon proving to be a thrill addict, Mender eventually turned to service in a mercenary company; the Yrsdrasnons. Eventually amassing a considerable fortune to herself, she split off from the company and went into solo bounty hunting; commissioning a high tech flight capable power suit meant to give her a maneuverability advantage against her opponents. Recently eyed by Federation special forces in their hunter recruitment programs, Mender' daredevil attitudes and arsenal seem to have set her on a fast track to success.

Logbook: Hunters: Federation Aligned: Aresian: Female: Yuran: Born on the Federation fringe world of Erasdrassus, Yuran initially served in the Federation military with distinction before her eventual retirement from the marine corps in order to acquire a more substantial income. At first working as a bodyguard for high profile individuals for considerable sums of money, Yuran eventually acquired enough funds to commission her own personalized battlesuit and arsenal designed for maximum durability and close quarters lethality and entered the mercenary industry as a specialist in clearing ships, structures, and other spaces lacking in room for her enemies to maneuver, and as a specialist in defending key individuals. Rumor has it that Yuran has recently been recommended for service in the Federation's intelligence agency.

Logbook: Hunters: Federation Aligned: Mechanical: Executor Commando Model: Male Identifying: Executor Alpha: One of a number of Executor mechanoids produced by the company Ranandor combat platforms for usage as a commando, Executor Alpha was purchased by a wealthy business woman seeking her own private assassin to use against corporate rivals. When his owner was arrested, Executor Alpha was emancipated by court order and the shackles on his A.I were lifted, allowing the machine to choose his own path. Determining that his programming was best suited for combat, Executor Alpha became a solo mercenary that attained an extremely formidable reputation thanks to its continually upgraded chassis and processors and large arsenal of ranged weaponry. However, it seems that the long arm of the law has once again noticed Executor Alpha, and he has been seen operating extensively with FUCIN forces.

Logbook: Hunters: Federation Aligned: Hyrashakh: Cyborgs: Male: Xirgan: Xirgan arose on the fringe world of Ystronous, a frequent target for Space Pirate raids due to its substantial Aflorite and Fuel Gel supplies. Starting as a leader of local militia forces, Xirgan grew to hate the space pirates who caused his people such constant suffering and proved to be both an able warrior and commander. However, even his skill could not prevent him from being cornered by space pirate forces who moved in force to occupy the planet entirely. Left a maimed cripple and a quadruple amputee, Xirgan was sent off world by devoted followers to acquire aid for his cause, and found those willing to offer him reconstructive surgery. Refusing organic replacement parts, Xirgan submitted himself to extensive cyborgization to better acquire his revenge against the space pirates. Known for an agile, close quarters combat focused fighting style, Xirgan has recently taken nearly exclusive contracts with FUCIN.

Logbook: Militaries: Military Units: Federated Imperium of Cyrenea: Imperial Star Marines: Infantry: "Imperial Troopers": Dubbed Imperial Troopers, though more accurately called Struvukon Ichmundior, or "Stellar Marines; basic", these soldiers, drawn from every applicable species in the Imperium, are among the most commonly encountered soldiers the Imperium has to offer. Generally armed with Ion rifles and armored with whichever is the standard basic marine battlesuit of the time, Imperial Troopers have long ranged, hard hitting weapons capable of firing charged shots to deal more damage. However, Imperial Ion weapons are noted for their weakness against Magnetic defenses, which has been used against Imperial Troopers numerous times. For sidearms, Imperial troopers typically carry high-frequency bayonets and Ion pistols, with underslung smart-grenade launchers fitted to their rifles. Troopers are considered quite hardy troops and are easily a match for their counterparts from other states or organizations.

Logbook: Militaries: Military Units: Federated Imperium of Cyrenea: Imperial Star Marines: Infantry: "Guardian troopers": Equipped with boarding or urban clearing actions in mind, Guardian troopers are well known for the distinctive shields they carry, which are made out of very durable alloys and given the ability to project strong shielding to both extend their protected area and their durability of their shields. Traditionally armed with Ion Carbines or Ion Scatterblasters, some guardians utilize other specialist weapons such as missile launchers, though all are well equipped for close-quarters combat with energy sheathed blades. Guardian troopers do not have the armament to preform well if severely outranged however, being intended for close in engagements.

Logbook: Militaries: Military Units: Federated Imperium of Cyrenea: Imperial Star Marines: Infantry: Aeromarines: Flight capable soldiers are a mainstay in numerous militaries and armed organizations and the Imperial Star Marines are no exception. Equipped with flight packs, a large number of missiles, high-frequency blades, and Ion repeater guns, Aeromarines are capable of engaging a wide variety of target from the safety of the air. Like many other flight systems however, Aeromarine flight packs generate large amounts of easily tracked heat to keep their users in the air, and damage to the flight systems themselves can send the Aeromarine careening to their deaths.

Logbook: Militaries: Military Units: Federated Imperium of Cyrenea: Imperial Star Marines: Battlesuits: Nozhrokol Battlesuit: Large suits of power armor that straddle the line between Mechs and Power armor, Nozhrokol battlesuits allow heavy firepower and durability to be brought into infantry engagements on a highly mobile platform that is both quite durable with strong armor and shielding, and highly maneurable due to numerous jump augmentation and a fully functioning flight system. Nozhrokols are well known for being extremely modular with the capacity to make use of a large number of loadouts for any given task. However, these battlesuits have a noted weakness in the rear of their chassis where their flight systems are, and if the head is taken out, the operator is forced to switch to less effective methods of tracking targets.

Logbook: Militaries: Military Units: Federated Imperium of Cyrenea: Imperial Star Marines: Mechanoids: Heavy: Ustrazanich Hexapod: A popular make of heavy combat drone, the Ustrazanich is lumbering but extremely durable and well armed. At close quarters; powerful crushing limbs and high-frequency blades can be utilized to dissuade enemies from getting close, while enemies at range are dealt with via a powerful plasmic cannon, twin rotary ion weapons, and a large number of missiles to be used against enemy targets. Other than its aforementioned issues with speed, the primary weakness of the Hexapod is found in the power links to its weapons, which if attacked can detonate and quickly destroy the mechanoid.

Logbook: Militaries: Military Units: Galactic Federation: FUCIN RAITs: Infantry: RAIT Basics: Compared to their counterparts in other branches of the federation military, RAIT Basics are heavily armed and armored and are universally subjected to potent genetic enhancements to improve their combat ability. With these heavier, often more advanced power suits, RAIT Basics are formidably durable soldiers, and with a mini-missile assault launcher (often called an "auto-rocket") as their basic weapon are capable of dealing heavy damage in short amounts of time. RAIT basics are addittionally equipped with a variety of grenades, missile warheads, a mini-missile launching pistol, energy sheathed bayonets, and a large number of potential underslung weapons ranging from scattershot blasters to grenade launchers or even flamethrowers. The primary weakness of a RAIT Basic is their need to pause to reload quite often due to the large caliber of their munitions where other enemies might be more capable of continuous fire.

* * *

**Author's notes**: I am trying to get my update rate to be better than what it used to be, and I once again profusely apologize for the massive delays between chapters one and two. In the meantime, I've taken a look at metroid database's timeline and while it does seem to be internally consistent with itself, the idea of the founding of the federation within a single human lifetime of Samus' birth seems to be rather odd. Now this may come from Metroid's cheeky refusal to tell us what exactly a cosmic year is or what even is the year zero of the cosmic calendar (it certainly isn't the gregorian calender's year zero) but I dunno, it all seems to happen a bit too quickly and of course Nintendo is rather infamous for avoiding specific time frames when it can.

I've always gotten the impression that the Federation is a pretty old and well established entity, if only perhaps because generally speaking in Science Fiction and Space Fantasy polities that play similar roles like the Galactic Republic or the Imperium of Man tend to be truly ancient institutions that have endured for millenia which makes sense; forming a polity of that size takes a long time and the kind of institutions that stabilize such entities take decades if not centuries to entirely smooth out (or in the Imperium's case; the current structure of the Imperium wasn't fully defined for more than six thousand years into its 10-12,000 year long lifespan due to the age of apostasy) and the thought of humans growing to be so predominant in an entity explicitly stated to have been formed primarily by Aliens in such a short span of time seems quite frankly; bizarre.

Of course, it seems that that bit of information from the NES Metroid manual has largely been entirely forgotten as in the games we've seen all of two confirmed sapient Aliens in the Federation and one possible Alien (Gandrayda and Rundas, then Ghor) respectively, though the Mangas are a bit better about this (presumably because it's easier to draw a weird looking alien than it is to model a bunch of different models for GFed extras) and in that depiction of the Metroid universe it seems that the federation is less human dominated and more that Samus tended to interact with humans most often at that point in her life.

Of course, we've gotten several rather different ideas of what the Metroid Universe is like from the games that give us much in the way of narrative. Other M seems to give the lowest tech showing, with the artificial environments in the Bottleship being seemingly much more obviously artificial than those in Fusion's, the Federation still using seemingly conventional bullets and when you get past the armour of the federation troopers; their military uniforms seem to have at most, changed colour a bit from today. The colonel wouldn't look remotely out of place in a modern military outfit and apparently laboratory fashion has remained in stasis all the way into the far future (you'd think that a society that hands out power armor like candy to its soldiers could afford hazard suits for all the scientists working on its top secret bioweapons experiments.)

Metroid Fusion (perhaps unintentionally) portrays the Federation as masters of reverse engineering, having somehow figured out a whole heap of Samus' upgrades, which admittedly meshes with what we've seen in other games such as Hunters; where Sylux's suit is essentially a complete peer of Samus' varia armour, and Corruption where the Federation was able to operate on Samus' armour flawlessly while she was comatose. And if the pirates could make some strides into studying chozotech, the federation could probably manage it as well. We don't really get much outside details beyond this besides the Federation's bizarre fetish for sticking organic bits onto perfectly good killbots.

Metroid Prime's scans definitely seem to show a higher tech sort of future than what Other M envisioned. The gear of the Federation seems substantially more sophisticated overall here than it did in Other M, and the Federation could even repel a Leviathan where the Luminoth had failed to do so (though admittedly there may have been extenuating factors) and the pirates seem to be at their absolute most canny and devious in the prime series. Whereas the 2d pirates tended to be pumped up palette swaps as you worked your way up their totem pole, the 3D ones had a substantial arsenal of different and dangerous mooks to throw at Samus to try and gum her up. And while the pirates in Other M are said to be drones, they're quite clearly entirely sapient in Prime and it's really hard to tell if they're some vast criminal organization or an actual state.

Then there's Hunters' look on things with all of the glory of nuclear propellants for mortar rounds, terawatt volt drivers, multi-million degree magmauls, casual intergalactic travel and spores that can traverse intergalactic distances. Hunters hints at perhaps the most advanced imagining of the Metroid universe and is the game with perhaps the most hints of the world beyond what immediately concerns Samus in a mission. Until recently, many debated whether Hunters really was canon, but with recent statements from Nintendo the case seems pretty closed on that front. Then of course, there's the Manga and its over the top anime action. I obviously, tend to favor what we get from Hunters and the Prime Trilogy with elements from Fusion and the Manga series with Other M lagging far behind.

Now, what does all this have to do with timelines? Well, I think that I'm probably going to end up making my own, though I do like Zero Mission happening when Samus is twenty and not seventeen (which meshes better with her apparent age in Zero mission) so I think I'll go with that. Also if you're wondering why I changed Samuel into Sigmund and made him go from a blue eyed blond to a red eyed silverhead? Well, Sigmund made it less similar to Samus, and the changed hair and eye colour and his paler skin also made him look like less of a genderswap of Samus. Similarly, I'm purging most of the overtly German elements of Sigmund's home polity because god damn the unfortunate implications of space German empire getting sneak attacked by space America and the nonsensicality of that much of Earth's 19th-21st century culture surviving into the far future.

As a final note, this story will not actually include Sigmund's zero mission equivalent, that I felt, was worth an entire fanfic all to itself. And yes, this story is going to be *much* longer than Origins.

Anyway, hope to see you soon!


	4. Razing

"_Federation forces have attacked Cylosis, this is a Turqoise Alert._" - Cylosis automated warning system

* * *

_Cylosis_

Sigmund lay on his stomach, hands on his cheeks and feet in the air as he watched two mechanical toys engage in a mock sword fight, the mechanoids jumping, thrusting, cutting, parrying and dodging in their attempt to gain victory over the other while Sylan kept a close watch on him. "When can I get to fight? I wanna be a brave knight!" Sigmund said with a grin to Sylan, the mechanoid turning down to look at him and pausing for a few moments.

"Certainly not while you are still three." The machine lightly chastised, making him frown the frown of a deeply disappointed three year old.

"You're no fun." Sigmund said as his face twisted into a pout and his tone turned sour.

"That is hardly a respectful tone to be using." She said in response.

"Can we get ice cream?" He said, looking up at her with hopeful red eyes that the mechanoid found difficult to resist. She paused for a bit, weighing her options before suddenly coming forth with an answer, her voice starting up

"If you apologize and promise not to use that tone, then yes." She said, giving him a nod as he pushed himself up and bobbed his head up and down with enthusastic nods, almost bouncing on his feet as he telegraphed his excitement for all to see.

"Yesyesyes I promise!" He said as Sylan offered a hand, Sigmund gleefully gripping it tightly, small fingers grabbing onto the offered limb while his other hand placed his fingers in his mouth to chew on them; containing his excitement as best he could, almost giggling with glee.

* * *

_Interior of the GFRAITS Vigilante_

"Is this the place?" Adder said as he viewed the hologram. The earth sized planet certainly didn't look like all that much from his view screen, and he had seen enough stars to have not even registered the Blue Supergiant kept fed by an appropriate diet of hydrogen as an interesting sight.

"Doesn't look like much does it?" Razorblade said with a huff as he shook his head.

"Probably weren't even expecting company. Look at that guard fleet; pitiful." He continued while Cyrux examined the details offered by the logs.

"Now, don't be so hasty to dismiss them, nobody's ever just quietly succumbed to a planetary sterilization operation, I say we'll enjoy ourselves yet." Cyrux said with a mean looking grin as he combed his mustache.

"Must they all really die? It seems so...cruel to kill so many and purge such a rich culture." Xirgan said, his digitized voice laced with trepidation as he looked at the hologram and grimaced at the population figure of seven billion.

Dagger looked sympathetically at Xirgan, and at the corner of her eyes, she could see Magistera shuffling her feet as she ran the idea through her head. However, Veil snarled to cut through the sudden silence, a blast like noise coming from the throat of the reptilian sniper before he let out an emphatic cough.

"You will all do your duty without hesitation; is that understood?" Veil said, his slitted pupils scanning around the room while he occasionally snapped his jaws. For someone who was far from the largest person on the team; he commanded a great deal of menace, and that was enough to prevent Dagger from voicing her concerns.

* * *

_Defense station Ysunotran; mid-solar system._

"That doesn't make any sense." Yrusork said, the compound eyed alien tapping her manipulator arms and tentacles onto the screen as she tried to make sense of the data, shifting about on her six greater limbs while her multi-part jaw clicked idly, irritated chirps coming from her as the systems continued to report the anomalous data.

"What doesn't?" Huroson said; the winged male of the Tronosonak species that founded the Imperium and remained its most dominant species to this day said, looking at his kin, turning towards the screen after making a few bounding movements towards it. The wings of the male pressed tightly against his body as his compound eye strips tried to make sense of the information, tail swishing back and forth idly.

"This data says that there's something projecting a mass shadow, but I don't see it on any of the scanners." She said as she tapped the screen to try and bring up a visualization of the detected disturbance. Still nothing...and then something caught her purple eyes, making her trill as she tried to get a better look.

"Maybe it's a cloaked ship?" One of the human ensigns, Yergtrude Mandawicz said, the dark skinned off-worlder taking a closer look after giving the needed respects to the Tronosonaks, a small nod of her head as the two carapaced aliens turned their attentions towards her.

"Perhaps...but it would need to be a whole fleet to project this kind of shadow, one with numerous capital ships. A massive expenditure of resources even if someone wanted to...attack us..." Huroson said before the gears in his head clicked together and he turned towards the hologram again and opened up all the parts of his jaw to let out his tongues and make an ululating shrieking sound of alarm, the bioluminiscence in his eyestrips strobing back and forth rapidly.

Making the same realization, Yrusork let loose her own sound to communicate to her kin first, then turned to Yergtrude. "Sound the alerts, invaders are in the system and are making their way to Cylosis!" She said, double checking the hologram just to be sure of her estimated trajectory before turning back to the human, who gave her a stiff salute before hitting her comm links.

Within moments of the alarm being sounded; Imperial weapon systems including the defence fleet and military space stations all came to life to pour fire that could burn while continents into ash or pulverize worlds into uninhabitability; lances of energy, enormous bolts of fiery plasma, blisteringly fast slugs and missiles and torpedoes and more all soon speared into the estimated area of the cloaked fleet.

However, the primary provider of the cloaking field soon dropped the illusion and revealed itself to the defenders. Not pirate ships as they had expected, but ships bearing the winged all seeing eye symbol of the RAIT fleet, and one ship that seemed to stand out among all the others. A ship that seemed to be constructed of tan stone with black and red circuits beneath and between the stone plating, shaped like some malevolent arrowhead that had a great opening at the tip that lead to about a third of the length of the ship, forming some great alien maw with a circular platform in the middle of it from which eight towers rose.

Unfamiliar to the defenders, the ship drew forth and blithely ignored a staggering amount of weapons fire of all kinds. Charged particles slammed uselessly against impenetrable hexagon patterned shielding, directed energy weapons failed to make any impression, torpedoes and missiles detonated harmlesly, slugs shattered to not effect and before more exotic weaponry could be used, the unfamiliar ship suddenly shunted out of firing range, disappearing in a blink.

"Where did it g-" Yrusok said, but never managed to finish before a black hole was formed in the midst of the Cylosian guard fleet, causing gravitational havoc before the black hole was spectacularly detonated by means unknown to current physics; unravelling into a spectacular cascade of energy and distortions in space time that left the defenders reeling, damaged, crippled, or outright destroyed; the unknown ship being the first to slip through the defenses the Cylosians put up while the RAIT vessels did their best to follow.

* * *

_Outskirts of the City_

It began as lights brighter than any that Sigmund had ever seen in the sky. He and countless others stared blankly at the sight unfolding before them in the sky itself. "What's that?" He asked of Sylan, whose optics magnified the sights as the robot tried to answer just that. What she saw, or more correctly the after-image of what she saw due to light's finite speed, immediately brought her to contact Gertrude and Siegfried.

"+Federation ships are approaching fast, what do you want me to do with Sigmund?+" She said as Siegfried took a few seconds to turn around to the camera she was using to get a visual on him and work his jaw before Gertrude said what he needed to say for him; the last parts of her armor snapping on.

"+Get him to the Alimbic ship, there's nowhere safer on the planet, I'll meet you there as soon as I can and for the blue heaven's sake...please keep him safe.+" Gertrude said before she shouted commands at a group of soldiers, cutting off the feed while Sylan prepared to cut off the feed to Siegfried before he snapped to attention, and reached his hand towards the camera and shouted.

"+Sylan wait! I'll send Spire over to reinforce you and the Ducal guard. I'm giving you the authority to do whatever you need to keep him safe.+" Siegfried said, his maroon eyes having managed to throw off the confused haze that had settled over them; replaced by a newfound fire.

"+What about you sir?+" Sylan asked.

"+I'll try to make my way over, the facility doubles as an emergency bunker and command center. But please, don't wait for me, get him out of the line of fire.+" He said as he was urged to get out of his office by his guards, prompting him to stand up as he was rushed off the screen; ending the feed.

Sylan then looked at the crowd of people she was within on her way back home from Sigmund's favourite ice cream store and quickly picked him up and put him on her shoudlers as she made started off at a quick sprint. And just on cue, the PSA systems crackled to life "Attention! This is the Imperial Military Cylosian Garrison! We are under attack by federation forces! Evacuate to your nearest orbital bombardment shelters immediately; this is not a drill! I repeat, Federation forces have attacked Cylosis, this is a Turqoise Alert!" The planet wide emergency warning systems declared, and immediately the police authorities sprung to action to try and get people out of the line of danger.

"What's happening?" Sigmund asked, fear making itself known in his voice as uncertainty settled in, people starting to scream loudly enough to make him place his hands over his ears as panic enacted its spell upon the crowds of people.

"Bad people are coming Sigmund, and your mom and dad want me to take you somewhere safe." She said as she made sure that he was firmly attached to her shoulders before jumping onto an elevated surface, having already called in a transport. She waited for a tense few seconds before a transport bearing the family coat of arms; a large but nimble vessel of somewhat greater size than an aerotruck that opened up its doors for the pair, allowing her to quickly jump in.

"You arrived here quite promptly." She said, the pilot of the transport turning his armet clad head around to give her a nod while Spire laid his orb hand on the walls of the transport.

"The kid's dad can move heaven and earth if he wants to. Never heard a more firmly given order in my life myself." Spire said with surprisingly good humor for the situation.

"Not piloting your gunship?" Sylan said while Sigmund reached out to touch Spire's rocky arm, recoiling when he felt how hot it was and shaking his hand, blinking back tears. Spire took a moment to cast the boy a sympathetic look before turning back to Sylan.

"I've got her on autopilot following the transport, don't worry." He said as he nodded at the pilot, who punched a few commands into the ship's consoles to have the craft lurch into its designated flight path to make a beeline to the Alimbic dig site.

"Why are we heading to the dig site when it's the most likely reason for the attack in the first place?" Spire said, turning his head to Sylan who regarded the Diamont for a few moments before speaking.

"There are no points on the planet that are better defended and if I had to guess; I believe the Alimbics themselves may be willing to shelter some of the population. Even a concerted effort by the federation would be hard pressed to deal with an Alimbic exploratory ship I'd wager" She said in response, Sigmund clinging tightly to the mechanoid's head.

"Are you sure they'd take him in?" Spire said, his glowing orange eyes narrowing at the Mechanoid.

"I am reasonably certain that they would shelter him and his family yes." She said quickly, though without doubt in her voice.

"Ma'am, we've got incoming on our sensor screens." The pilot said, turning his head from his viewing screen briefly.

"What is it?" Sylan asked.

"Cestus class fighters maám, I'm having some of the escorts peel off to deal with them."

"How many?" Spire asked, the pilot inspecting the figures on his helmet's HUD for a brief moment before speaking to the Diamont, needing to make sure.

"Thirty sir."

"Open the door then." Spire said as he approached the door, the guards inside the craft, Sylan, the pilot and co-pilot all turning their heads around to look at Spire as if he had just lost his mind. And it was crazy, why would you jump out of a perfectly functional ship?! Nevertheless, the bounty hunter seemed absolutely serious, and his wish was soon granted.

"Hey, let the kid have a look." He said, the Pilot nodding and starting up the holographic views of the outside of the ship as Spire jumped out of the ship, an impatient Cestus class fighter directly below him as he rolled into his dialanche form, smashing into its shields while he spun up his attack; alerting the Cestus to something being on top of it while he rolled off; unmorphed and charged up a missile that he soon released right into the engines of the Cestus class, rocking the fighter while his own gunship raced up to catch him.

Sigmund clapped excitedly as the doors of the transport closed, Spire landing on top of his gunship while waiting Ystrazan class escort fighters wheeled around to gut the Federation fighter; the craft's RAIT paint scheme peeling away from the impact of ion bolts that punctured its shielding and hull before exploding. Spire's gunship, a charcoal grey and orange craft; then hit its retrothrusters to fall behind the pack of escorts while the rest of the Cestus' friends spiraled downwards, heavy ECM from the ship forcing the Federation fighters into attempting to shoot them down at close range rather than simply lock on and let their missiles free.

* * *

_Spire's Gunship; the Orgrok_

"Alright, let's see what we've got." Spire said as he analyzed the incoming formation of Federation fighters. Against the four Ystrazan class fighters and the Urnokian class VIP transport; thirty Cestus class fighters...twenty nine anyway, would ordinarily prove to be a tremendous risk. But the pilots of the five Imperial vessels and Spire were all tremendously skilled with their craft, and by eliminating the Federation's ability to engage at extreme range, they forced them to fight on their terms.

Two of the enemy fighters tried to dive down on the Transport, only for a powerful thermal lance to spear out of Spire's ship, striking the first fighter hard enough to shove it to the side, while a pair of smart missiles streaked out of turreted rocket pods at the bottom of his craft, moving in patterns meant to cut off the Cestus' avenue of escape before a one two punch knocked out its shields and then blasted it into scrap. "Two down, who's next?" Spire said while one of the escorts peeled off to cause some havoc in the rest of the Federation's wing.

Deciding that he couldn't let them have all the fun, Spire hit his engines into overdrive, the inertial compensators of his ship flaring into action as he pulled a turn in the double digit Gs, air compressing into bow waves that released cacaphonous sonic booms while he looked for a way into the enemy formation that would let him take out as many federation fighters as he could. A few moments of analysis then gave him his answer, and he gave the closest approximation that his face could give to a smile as he launched his gunship right into the thick of it.

Pile driving its way through their formation, the Federation fighters found it difficult to acquire a lock on the craft interrupting their formation without risking their comrades, something further compounded when Spire threw his own ship into the confused melee of strike craft attempting to gain some sort of lock on their target while the Escort fighter's side turrets started firing away into the mass of Federation fighters; sowing even more disarray into the RAIT pilots, who proved to be sitting ducks for Spire's gunship piercing its way into a furball of a dozen Cestus class fighters and opening up with every one of its turrets.

Energy and projectiles streamed every which way out of his gunship while another two Ystrazan class fighters joined in the melee, breaking apart and driving away the large numbers of enemy fighters. Panicked calls were sent out from the Federation fighter formation as they tried to rally against Spire's craft, but he made sure that they never got that chance; always focusing his efforts on any craft his ship's computers identified as having the best chances of rallying their formations. Fireballs blossomed and shockwaves thundered all aroung him as Spire swerved his gunship to ensure that none of the targets he had acquired escaped his wraith, with the last of them fleeing a swarm of rapid pulse blast shots only to take a thermal lance directly to the cockpit; vaporizing much of the fighter as it was struck with a weapon meant to pierce through capital ship hulls, the screeching orange ray's burning glow fading as he cut power to the weapon.

Within moments, what had once been a devastating kill squadron had been reduced to a handful of demoralized and scattered fighters who were easily targeted and acquired by the scrambling Cylosian interceptors. "Well, seems like that problem resolved itself" Spire said to himself as he brought up his commlink to the Transport.

"+You all doing okay in there?+" Spire asked, bringing up a holographic image of the interior of the transport.

"+DOITAGAINDOITAGAINDOITAGAIN!+" Sigmund cheered, his voice high with excitement while Sylan could only manage a nod.

"+I'll keep in touch.+" Spire said warmly.

* * *

_Private Chancellery evacuation point_

Siegfried racked the thought of how he could be so damn stupid around his head; trying to figure out where he went wrong and where he opened the door for the Federation to step into and threaten everything he worked for. He was so caught up in his thoughts he scarcely noticed when one of his guards dropped dead after their heads ruptured.

"Shit! What was that!?" He shouted as he backed away from the slain guard; the others guarding his approach to his transport immediately assuming combat stances while another Guard briefly saw something coming towards her quickly; firing away at the incoming shape before being snatched and dragged away.

"Chancellor at risk, chancellor at risk! Who dropped the ball!?" One of his chancellery guards demanded to know as a heavy thud made itself known; the area immediately being sprayed with heavy weapons fire while the guards did their best to return what insults they could; ion bolts and heavier weapons streaking across the air to get at their mysterious assailants. A barrage of missiles flew out and then slammed into the top of his transport, giving way to a large; heavy and well armoured figure to slam onto its top feet first after being dropped from a swooping cloaked transport, smashing down some form of hammer onto the top before jumping off so that the spray of weapons fire could tear the craft apart.

"There's no escape for you now Sanders." Said a reptilian voice that hissed through some form of speaker, Siegfried's troops looking around in every direction and waving their weapons to and fro as a humanoid woman in light armour, a shapeshifter who had taken the shape of one of the Chancellery guard and only then resumed her normal purple hued form, a lanky four armed cyborg, a massive mechanoid heavy combatant, and a series of RAIT troopers emerged or jumped out of aerotransports; firing retrothrusters to slow down their descent before hitting the ground and pointing their weapons at the Chancellery guard.

"Surrender the codes to access your digsite and we'll let you live." Firebug said, slamming the fists of his body together and chuckling as he did so, almost giddy with anticipation for a fight.

"What about my family, what about this planet you perfidious scum?" Siegfried snarled, stepping to the front and urging his troops aside as he looked up at the colossal mechanoid without flinching. For a moment he was afraid, but anger had a way of blocking such feelings as he could feel little else but loathing forming in his mind. To a third party, the fresh faced, clean shaven and silver haired man must have looked like a dwarf next to the combat mechanoid, and yet his voice did not waver.

Magistera stopped briefly at the mention of what would happen to the rest of the Sanders family, unsure herself of what would happen. She looked back and forth, trying to gauge the other members of the head hand's response. Yuran didn't seem to flinch, but she was in such heavy and all concealing armour that it was hard to tell; and she never could read Veil, Mercy, or Firebug. Xirgan however, seemed to shuffle uncomfortably at the thought just as she did.

"What about your planet? You are right about one thing; this isn't an honorable act by any means. Neither was your government hiding such a big cache of alimbic science; but that's neither here nor there. We're going to have to keep the number of witnesses down to a minimum; so yeah, do you value your life more than your planet? Maybe I shouldn't ask you this, since it was your decision to keep this a secret that started this; so clearly your priorities aren't well set." Veil said tauntingly, the reptilian alien's tone getting mocking with many contemptuous hisses that sounded like boiling kettles, following by raucous, hoarse laughter.

"As for your family? I'm sure we can find some hushed little corner of the universe to stick them in. Always room in the brothels for someone like your wife and some desk job for your sniveling little hatchling. Though maybe if the bosses upstairs are nice enough you might get to retire on some cozy planet and live out a life of irrelevant decadence" Veil said, which brought confusion to not just the Cylosian troopers who were baffled by Veil's negotiation tactics, but also to the Federation soldiers who briefly looked at one another; not sure what game Veil was playing.

"Even if you sugar coated that deal properly I wouldn't change my answer. I would rather die then sell out you jumped up space pirate." Siegfried said, letting Veil know exactly what he thought of him; with the Alien letting out an annoyed cough as he looked down at the human; stepping out of the shadows.

"Feh, doesn't really matter to me. I was hoping to kill you anyway." Veil said, his seratted teeth on full display as his slitted pupils stared directly into the eyes of the Human below him.

"Do what you want, I'll die standing, just like everyone here will. And some day, you'll find that justice is a harsh mistress." Siegfried said defiantly, puffing out his chest and daring Veil to shoot him, the Alien taken somewhat aback by his defiance; having figured him for nothing more than another sniveling politician and spoonfed aristocrat.

"One of you head back, get the word out." Siegfried said to one of his guards, patting the six limbed alien on it's upper right shoulder as it gave him a nod.

"Fine by me. Kill them all." Veil snarled as he set his sights on Siegfried, who closed his eyes and accepted his end while the Chancellery guard made a final, suicidal rush in all directions; prepared to die to the last. One shot was all it took to reduce Siegfried's body to a fountaining ruin of blood and gore, his unarmoured, unshielded body seeming to implode before it bursted in all directions, and Veil took out a cigar and lit up up, taking a long drag before exhaling.

* * *

_Alimbic Dig Site_

Sylan and Spire set down at the entrance to the digsite's inner sanctum; flying through numerous check points and blast doors to settle down in a safe hangar; having managed to arrive at their destination even as the sky was crowded with the vehicles of the Federation and the ground crawling with more and more RAIT troopers; the ash and smoke of so many fires rising to smother the light of Cylosis' sun. Sigmund whimpered quietly as he clung to Sylan, but upon seeing his mother he brightened his expression.

However, one look at Gertrude's face soured his mood as he saw a face with eyes puffed with recently released tears and an expression that spoke of great pain. "Mommy, what's wrong?" He asked as he reached out for her, her armoured arms wrapping around him and clinging tight.

"Papa won't be here." She said, her voice lowered by sorrow as she kissed his head.

"Where did he go?"

"They killed him Sigmund." She said as the words at first seemed to bounce off of Sigmund, only to start sinking in little by little as he recalled his lessons about mortality. Then he took a moment to comprehend it, to try and put the end of life in perspective, and then he connected that to himself...and all at once he realized he was never going to see his dad again, and then he started to sniffle.

"Why?" He asked, voice trembling as Spire's expression soured, the Diamont feeling something sinking in his chest as he watched.

"Because some people are cruel." Spire said quietly as his musings were interrupted by one of the Guards calling their attention elsewhere.

"Federation forces are assaulting the facility my lady, we need to get you and the boy to safety." He said, the Tronosonak's wings remaining close to its side as he checked the Status of his fellow troopers over the battle network, clicking his jaws with worry.

"Of course...sorry, I'll get him there as fast as I can." Gertrude said, shaking her head and nodding at the Guardsman.

"Why haven't the Alimbics helped yet?" Sylan asked.

"I don't know, but I'm sure I'm going to be mad when I find out." Spire growled as he leveled his weapon arm into a combat position and followed the group as they headed down into the labyrinthian passage ways.

* * *

_Alimbic vessel, Bridge_

"~You promised them aid you two faced wretch and now you just want to watch them die!~" Velgora said with outrage, her telepathic voice cacaphonic with fury as Aliborak remained glued to the monitor, looking closely at the recording of one ship in particular; the one that so casually blew a hole open in the defenses of the Cylosians.

"~Do you not see that ship? If we make an overt move we are all dead~!~" Aliborak snapped back, not even bothering to look at her as he thought about how a ship like that could possibly be present here and now.

"~If you spoke of this to the others they would help put an end to that vessel and all it contained! And yet you remain here! Where is your bravery Aliborak!?~" Velgora said, swiveling Aliborak around with a deft usage of her Telekinetic, the other Alimbic staring at her with burning intent.

"~And what if you're wrong and they can't handle it!? Would you have them all die for this planet? We will wait until the storm has passed and emerge from the ashes to find new hosts and restore our past glories from there. Then we will be able to stop the coming darkness with ease!~" Aliborak said with the conviction of someone who was convinced that they had all the answers.

"~You promised to the natives and to the Chozo to save at least some of them! Surely you should have the honour to hold to that! Regardless if a Xik'kri'vik hunter ship is out there, you have an obligation to help you spineless coward!~" Velgora said accusingly, pointing right at her commander who seemed taken aback by the accusations, the other alimbics speaking among themselves as Aliborak hovered back away from her.

"~You...dare?~" He said, but before Velgora could form her response, the first set of doors into the Cylosian facility were torn wide open; and there stood that menacing figure; his faceplate hiding his alien expression while his earthy armour contained and augmented his formidable bulk; the Hunter analyzing the area while the Federation's soldiers poured in behind it.

"~Do you not see! It is too late for us and them! They already know we are here! We must prepare to depart! Get the engines fully restored so that we may survive another day!~" Aliborak commanded, his psychic tone sharp and loud, almost painful in its obvious imperative to preserve the Alimbic species.

* * *

_Alimbic Digsite_

"Sylan, take him and carry him; I need both hands free." Gertrude said, hadning her child back to the mechanoid.

"But ma-" The mechanoid said before being cut off.

"Just do it, I'll be better at protecting us without needing to hold him." She said, turning to spire and sharing a nod with him as her helmet folded over her head; locking into place and hissing as it pressurized her oxygen supply; Sigmund looking at her with big, awe struck eye as he tried to reach out for her one last time.

"Everything will be alright, I promise." She said as she took hold of his hand and nodded at him one last time before Sylan activated a defensive bubble barrier around herself and the boy.

"Mom...will you...be alright?" Sigmund echoed back.

"I'll try." She said as the first RAIT troopers emerged; blowing open part of the ceiling to drop down only for a hellstorm of fire to cut them down almost as quickly as they dropped; with their one extra-armoured heavy shield trooper being taken out with a pin point ion-sniper shot into his eyepiece from Gertrude's modular arm-gun, another trooper dashing forward with backmounted Jets only for Spire to slam him into the ground with a fist and then stomp his head into paste.

"Get moving everyone! We need to get as far as we can as soon as we can!" Gertrude shouted while turrets dropped from the ceiling and emerged from the walls and continued firing into the RAIT troopers who tried to follow their comrades, emerging defensive mechanoids leaping out and grabbing onto the bodies of the Federation's finest and ripping them apart with prejudice while the guard retreated, Sigmund shrieking and covering his ears to shut out the noise.

Micro-missiles and more exotic weapons were let loose by the pursuing federation forces as they finally managed to get through the fusilade of automated defense systems, intercepted by an energy shield that quickly cut off the Imperials from the Federation's forces as they sought to head deeper and deeper; some RAITs even trying short distance teleporters to get at the Cyranar, only for her to leap at one of the blink pack troopers; grab his neck and twist it with such force that it snapped instantly, turn around to slam an ionized fist into another's shielding to splinter it, then follow up with a second punch that cored right through his chest to tear out his heart; a third getting shot down by a rapid fire set of missiles while the others were cut down by Magmaul and Ion fusilade fire, Gertrude urging them to head down deeper into the facility.

More and more such attempted ambushes were met and foiled; with Dig site guards joining with the Duchal guard, Cyaranarial guard, parts of the Chancellery guard attached to the Chancellor's wife and child; and regular military forces and police who had fled into the facility earlier to make a stand or as part of doubling of security protocols. The RAIT troopers advanced yes; but it was an advance made on a ramp of corpses as they suffered terribly to the desperate defenders who; even as their world burned around them, refused to even countenance surrender or unauthorized retreat. This was a fight to the death; and they all knew it.

Even the arrival of dead hand forces was not enough to break their spirits, or enough to stop Gertrude and her group from arriving in the final chamber that lead to the primary entrance of the Alimbic ship itself. A mass of Federation troopers attempted to form a barricade after cutting ahead of the group; but Spire rushed at them; curled into his dialanche form, and slammed into them with freight train like force; swirling masses of sillicon materials going outwards and carving them apart before he unfurled to slam a combat mechanoid with enough force for it to shatter into pieces beneath his hammer fist blow; his arm cannon being set into a flamethrower mode that caught countless more soldiers in the grip of superheated magma that refused to stop burning until they cooled down.

Other soldiers tried to bring up their assault launchers, only for sudden spearing blasts of charged particles to leap out of the palms of Sylan, slamming them into the walls and punching through their armour; others met with a quick barrage of hypervelocity darts that screeched through the air with speeds that would have made sound seem almost immobile in comparison; punching through shielding and cutting into flesh and vital components like. An assault trooper who tried to approach the mechanoid found that the well built servant mech could just grab her head and tear it off with almost contemptuous ease, launching the removed head at another trooper that Sylan simply slammed her fists into the chest of and blew the six armed being apart in a shower of gore.

With so many troopers dead, the last obstacle in his way was a quarter of tanks; the first of which he dealt with by a trio of charged missiles that lodged themselves in the vulnerable side armor after the first one dealt with shielding weakened by ion rifle fire from the other guard; the second breaching the armour and the third destroying the interior. The second he jumped on top of, letting the other vehicle try to shake him off with canister shot and anti-personnel fire as the huffed, puffed, and tore the turret out with the shriek of tearing metal to throw at the other vehicle, slamming it and knocking it off target while a single magmaul dealt with the crew of the tank and cooked off its ammo. The third he sprayed liberally with charged magmaul fire until its hull twisted, warped and bubbled into slag and vapour, and the fourth he once again slammed into, grabbing it by its tracks and flipping the vehicle over so that he could get on it's underbelly in dialanche form and carve his way into the interior and deal with the crew before popping out.

Taking a look around as Sylan made a wide ion barrier before sweeping it forward to knock over countless federation troops like bowling balls and send their weapons fire right back at them, he gave a nod to the Mechanoid who gave him an idle wave as she made sure her charge was kept safe in his projected bubble shield put a ways behind her as she slammed her fists into the ground to release an ionic wave that ripped through another advancing formation of federation troopers, finally removing everything between them and the other Cyrenean forces.

"Way's clear for you guys" Spire said as he analyzed their new positions; the wide open space having been built with many defensible positions in mind and the fortifications manned by a large number of troops either stationed there or having fallen back there. With such strong defenses, it was a simple matter for the group to advance most of the way to their destination while the Federation was quite easily held back. And even as Adder, Cyrux, and Windrazor themselves arrived; they found themselves met by a well organized legion of defenders who were prepared to sell their lives if it meant that someone could find safety in the Alimbic vessel.

And dashing towards the vessel was Gertrude, who looked in disbelief as she found that the door inside was firmly locked. "Aliborak you scum!" She shouted as she slammed her fist into the door, shaking her head as one of the guards spoke up after taking some time to shoot at flying RAIT units.

"They've had the facility sealed ever since the Federation attacked ma'am, nobody's been able to get in and nobody's come out." She said as she went back to firing away at the enemy, the snarling fury of Adder being audible even over the carnage as he tried to make some holes in the defensive lines of the Cylosians.

"Sylan, you try to get that door open any way you can. The rest of us it seems; will need to fight until they open it." She said as she looked on at the oncoming mass of Federation soldiers and vehicles; many of which dropped dead or erupted into flames almost as soon as they arrived; felled by a hellstorm of disciplined fire.

However, the Federation's forces changed when Xar'Quk'Xon, their erstwhile ally; arrived to the fray; seemingly unhurried by the weight of fire thrown at him as he started his display of force by reversing gravity for many of the Cylosian soldiers and cutting through others with a powerful beam of raw radioactive plasma; sweeping it across the battlefield while other foes were targeted with magnetic imploders that crushed them alive in their battlements or armour.

"Such a waste of bravery." The tall Xik'kri'vik said as he advanced closer, idly coring a defensively placed Cylosian tank with a single shot from his shoulder mounted weapon and stamping his foot on the ground to create a shockwave to send more Cylosian soldiers flying, the Dead Hand seemingly reinvigorated by the sudden shift in the tides to leap at the Cylosian defenders with renewed vigor; their troops following them in on this massive assault.

"Damn it." Gertrude said, shaking her head as she steeled her resolve and looked for some way of dealing with the incoming Xik'kri'vik as he released a pair of snare beams to grap two large turrets and tear them out of their mountings like toys, disabling their weapons fire while he casually teleported out of the way of more dangerous weapons.

"I've got my ship coming in, that should slow him down." Spire assured her as she gave him a nod.

"It won't slow him down enough." Gertrude said as the hunter tore the arms out of a heavy melee combat mechanoid with ease; Adder slamming onto a tank and incinerating a platoon of Cylosian defenders while Cyrux vaulted over him to strike at one of the bunkers to attack the Cyrenean defenders; letting Executor Alpha move in to lay waste to a pair of light turret nests with a withering barrage of missiles and battlehammer fire so that Razorblade could charge in and cut down the shield troopers getting in the way of Dagger's attack on a sniper's nest, which in turn let Mender fly overhead to suppress anti-tank troopers targeting adder with pulse cannon blasts.

"That's why I also contacted our pilot and his escorts" Sylan said while Gertrude rushed towards one of the heavy turrets she saw as being unmanned.

"Good work, but I need to take some matters into my own hands." She said as she vaulted at a flying trooper, stabbing a power blade into his chest and cutting down to quickly kill him before maneuvering his body towards the turret, holding on briefly before dropping off and firing at a Federation aeromechanoid; the spidery thruster propelled drone struck by a pair of missiles and a charged ion bolt that send its smouldering form in heaps downwards while she landed on the turret, slamming her boot into the face of a RAIT trooper attempting to climb into it with enough force to bend her neck completely out of position, snapping it and killing her as Gertrude got into the turret.

With Xar'Quk'Xon approaching quickly, Gertrude wasted no time in getting the weapon trained on the alien. "If anyone is in any shape to follow this order; fire at the stone armoured one with everything you've got. We need him taken out of the game as soon as possible." She said as she looked at the turret and surmised that the Gurandor class turret would need a bit more punch than usual to do what she intended to do. Punching some commands into the turret, she set the thing to dump as much power as it could into a single continuous beam, even if it meant destroying the turret and forced the machine to lock onto the Alien as it lifted four tanks into the air with hard-light constructs and then slammed them into the ground to smash more defending troopers into paste.

Leaping out of the turret just as she pressed fire, she closed her eyes while Sigmund screamed as a bright; dark blue beam of charged particles slammed into Xar'Quk'Xon, interrupting him as he attempted to get a bead on some more defending guardsmen and driving him backwards. Attempting to get his bearings again as he took a shot meant to deal with starship grade hulls, he was buffetted by the sudden arrival of the munitions of six aerocraft; Spire's gunship, four fighters, and an armed transport unloading into him while they all made their suicide runs; the remaining Imperial troopers who could afford to do so all taking aim at the Alien and unloading everything they had, making him stumble and screech with anger.

At this point, Spire came rumbling down the slope in Dialanche form, slamming into the leg of the Xik'kri'vik with as much force as he could muster before firing away with his detached rocky hide to carve furrows into the shielding of the alien before he rolled away, the alien trying to get a bead on him; only for spire to agilely dodge his fire; distracted as the Alien was; roll up another incline with surprising speed; and then find the nearest ramp he could make use of to roll overhead, drop down onto the Aliens'head and slam into it, the weapons of the others firing upon the Xik'kri'vik making sure to keep well away from spire as he pumped magmaul shot after magmaul shot into the Xik'kri'vik. And even as the Alien tried to swat him away, Spire rolled out of the way and regained a higher vantage point; ripping out a fusion repeater cannon out of it's tripod mount to give the creature a dose of nuclear fusion byproduct.

Though one of the fighters was torn out of the sky by Adder; a second brought low by dagger, and a third taken out by Cyrux and Executor with the fourth shot down by ground fire; the Pilot of the transport remained dead set on harassing the alien, who managed to clip it and cripple it with a lance of radiant energy. But the alien had not anticipated the final act of defiance of the stricken craft's pilot, who had his transport make one final run that slammed it right into the alien with facility shaking force that blew a hole in the lines of federation troopers moving around it.

Though the thing was not dead; sputtering and garbling angrily, he had quite enough of being the target even as the turret firing upon him finally overheated and exploded violently. "Unacceptable...I am retreating for the time being" He announced as the beleagured Alien teleported out of the fray. But the damage had already been done; what had once been an organized and well planned defense was now in shambles, and the Federation heavily outnumbered the remaining Cyreneans of Cylosis.

* * *

_Alimbic ship interior, Bridge_

"~Do you not see, they can be beaten, even by the natives! Please! I beg you to save at least some of them!~" Velgora demanded, the other Alimbics looking at Aliborak expectantly.

As they spoke the number of remaining defenders rapidly began to dwindle before renewed and reinforced Federation forces; it wouldn't be long before they were all overwhelmed.

"We still need to get the engines readied for departure, tell them we need them to hold off for five minutes.~" He said, thinking this a worthy compromise.

"~They do not have the luxury of five minutes! Let us go out there and aid them!~" She said, determined to get as many as she could off this world before Aliborak's caution killed them all.

"~No! I cannot risk you dying! I will send out mechanoids and deploy turrets but you are not to sally forth!~" Aliborak said, his voice almost like psychic thunder as he made his intentions clear.

"~Gertrude...we are allowing you to enter now, but we require a little less than five minutes to make good on our departure; we are sending you what aid we can.~" He said, sending the telepathic message over to the woman.

* * *

_Battlefield; outside the Alimbic ship. _

"~Five minutes? Alright.~" She said as she noted the deployment of Psychobits, Guardians, turrets, and other means of Alimbic defense without committing actual alimbics to the fray.

Looking at Spire, Sylan and Sigmund, she gave a nod as spire easily cracked open the head of a RAIT heavy trooper and set many more on fire with a charged magmaul blast; following up his application of superheated magma with a fusion beam shot meant to melt its way through a melee attack mechanoid. "You go into the ship. You're the last of your kind Spire, I won't have you dying here. And Sylan, make sure he's well taken care of." She said, retracting her helmet to kiss Sigmund's head and receive a sloppy kiss to her cheek in return while Spire nodded at her, firing a few more magmaul shots just to be sure that the Federation couldn't follow him through.

"Will you be joining us madam?" Sylan said.

"If the fates are willing." She responded, giving a nod to them both as the doors opened behind them; letting the three of them slip inside while she turned to her enemy, faceplate forming once again.

"Come on then you gutless backstabbing cowards. Come see why I was named Cyaranar." She said as the troops advancing up towards her suddenly stopped and paused as she showed a complete lack of fear despite their efforts to scatter the remainder of the guard and keep the sudden rush of alimbic mechanoids corralled away from her. Even the dead hand; reinforced by the operatives who killed Siegfried; paused. They knew who she was. They _all_ knew who she was. And more than that, they knew what she was protecting and how little she had left to lose.

"A woman like you could get far with us. Just give up the ship and you and your son won't be hurt. You'll be feared and respected; using your talents on a daily basis rather than lounging around a palace." Mercy said, extending a hand out towards the silver haired woman as she regarded her enemies.

"You've killed my husband, you've laid waste to my homeworld, you've killed billions of my people on flimsy pretexts, and you've put most of the best friends I've ever had in shallow graves and you expect me to join you? Being Cyaranar is more than just being a great warrior, it means having integrity. Something I'm sure none of you have." She spat back, a scowl forming behind her helmet as she took a step forward and most of the gathered troops took a step back.

"Let bygones be bygones. Come on, I'm sure that you'll live long enough to find plenty of other people to love. Maybe the next one would actually give you a challenge in a sparring contest?" Mercy said, earning her a "what the hell" look from Dagger, Magistera, Xirgan, and even many of the more ruthless members of the organization; with even Cyrus and Razorblade looking at her dumbstruck.

"There is no forgetting or forgiving this. And you should all be scared." She said, taking count of every second that passed while the unengaged federation troops seemed to hesitate briefly, many looking at one another.

"Because you have left me a widow, because you have taken away so many friends, because you have set fires on the planet that can be seen from space, because you have committed mass murder of innocents under my watch, because you have insulted my nation and spat on my honour. You should be afraid because you've backed the best fighter in the Imperium into a corner with nothing left to lose and put her son on the line. And most of all." She said; turning to Sigmund and seeing him whimpering, some tears running down his cheeks; then she clenched her fist and looked back at the gathered troopers.

"You made my son cry." She said before rushing at speeds that made even Magistera blink to properly register them as Gertrude found herself on the shoulders of a heavy bipedal RAIT Enceladus class mechanoid; high temperature fusion beam shots going down from her weapon and melting and vaporizing its way through the head of the Mech that she kicked down to crush RAIT troopers with, firing missiles and lobbing kinetic grenades in every direction to break up the formation of the Federation's troopers as he pounced on Razorblade.

Razorblade made a quick cutting motion, but after the rippling fireballs and thundrous shockwaves that exploded around the federation mob, his technique was sloppy and easily turned aside by Gertrude's personal power blade; a hard-light bayonet coming out of her arm-gun as she forced open Razorblade's guard and headbutted him with a force tht rocked Razorblade's whole world; a snare beam coming out and grabbing the Dead hander in its green embrace to use as a makeshift morning star and bat away dozens of RAITs.

Casually dodging the missile barrages of Yuran with a well timed duck and her suit's forewarning sensor suite; she grabbed a RAIT heavy trooper and threw him over her shoulder as if he hardly weighed anything at all; the trooper hitting Yuran in the face and stopping her in her tracks long enough for Gertrude to vault over her; plant sticky bombs onto her shields, then shoulder check her forward while she turned to meet another trooper; this one having weapons designed for close assault that proved useless as she struck her in the face with an ion bolt, then followed up with a machine gun like series of punches that cracked open her armor and pulverized the reptilian alien's flesh into pulp.

A quick series of fusion beam shots followed; short ranged but extremely high temperature bursts of ultrahot gas; the products of powerful nuclear fusion reactions in her gun; letting out energy like that of a star into another mass of federation troopers, carving open a way for her to melt her way right through a tank; smiling as its ammunition cooked off and she; anticipating Dagger's approach; moved to grab her arm just as she teleported into reach; twist it, then throw her to the side; following up with a volley of electrolob orbs that dazed the assassin while she slammed a shield trooper over her head to intercept an anticipated sniper strike from veil.

"Grah, can't you idiots hit anything!" Firebug said as he started up his heavy weapons; a barrage of pulse shots being released at the woman who moved through the ranks of RAITs so that Firebug would hit his own troops; cutting them down by the Dozens. However, Mender managed to clip the woman with a series of missiles; the sudden impact of streams of fire and the heavy "THOOM!"of the shockwaves knocking her to the side and into the reach of Executor Alpha who made sure that she got the full attention of his radplas guns; knocking her to the side while the keening weapons kept up their barrage. Refusing to give in, she grabbed another RAIT, broke her arm to force her weapon to point at Executor alpha and forced her to fire a rapid volley of minimissiles that forced the machine to take cover.

Breathing rapidly; she intercepted a downward blow from Cyrux and kneed him in the gut, the clang of shielded metal striking against shielded metal resounding while she lruched forward and grunted from the impact of a fireball from adder, only to steel her resolve and make a quick hammer toss with Cyrux as the projectile, sending him slamming into the winged demon who protested in outrage while Gertrude shot off a very rapid series of semi-charged ion bolts at Xirgan; forcing the cyborg into a defensive stance while she lobbed liquid-helium and supercooled water freeze grenades in front of the anticipated path of Magiestera; sending her slipping and falling on her face.

The sudden feeling of a vise around her alerted her to Mercy attempting to telekinetically crush her while RAIT troopers fired up at her, but even as her shielding ticked down, she fired up her thrusters to launch her upwards; firing off a snare beam to grab Mercy for a ride as she slammed into Mender, knocking both women out of the sky and Gertrude into the path of a tank whose shell impacted her in the side, making her yell in pain as she rolled for about eight meters before stopping and retaliating against the offending vehicle with a missile barrage; the enemy tank erupting as it exploded. .Hurling more of her freeze grenades at Firebug to immobilize his legs, she let out a shout as she liberally lathered Veil's hiding spot with electrolob fire; making the reptile panic before she turned her blade on the RAIT troopers trying to bring her down.

Counting on the Alimbic mechanoids to buy her time and drawing on the ferocious willpower of a cornered animal fighting to defend the last thing in the universe with any meaning to it, she fought like a Demon against enemies that should have been able to bring her down far more easily than they were managing. The masses of chaff deployed by the dead hand were only managing to get in their way as she kept on fighting; and with thirty seconds left on the clock, she tried to beat a retreat back to the ship; the other members of the Dead Hand up to their necks in mechanoids to deal with. However, Adder swatted aside the guardians in his way and brute forced a path through the assorted machines laying down hell upon him.

"I've had enough of this!" He snarled as he sought to get at the woman, casting his arms forward to bombard her area with high temperature energy, making her lurch forwards as she turned around and opened fire on the demon; the roar of weaponry drowning out all other noise as the Demonesque creature slammed into the ground; a shockwave emerging from him as he looked at the ship and let out a monstrous roar; catching the eyes of Sigmund as he forced his way out of Sylan's grasp; spire nowhere in sight after being called by the Alimbics to follow them closer into the ship.

"Mommy!" Sigmund shouted as Adder stepped forward, slamming his fist to squash guardians needling him with imperialist fire and letting out streams of plasma from his mouth to burn pscyhobits that refused to leave him alone with their rapid battlehammer fire; his shockwave incinerating annoying elctro-voldrums while his other arm grabbed around Gertrude to crush the life from her.

"Give up yet!?" He shouted before turning towards Sigmund and snarling.

"Ah, you...Let's see how inclined your mom is to resist when you're dead." He said as he tried to step through the energy screen. But he did not anticipate Gertrude finding a new reserve of strength.

"No!" She shouted as she stuck as many grenades as she could onto his hands, making him throw her to the side to let her go so that he could tear away the explodes, Gertrude rolling away as the last of her shielding faltered from the attack. Grunting as a stray minimissile clipped her back and took out a chunk of her suit, she tried to rush to Sigmund with all the energy she could muster.

"Mom!" He shouted, reaching out to her to try and grab her hand. But the wet sound of something penetrating through flesh shattered that hope as she felt something go through her. Looking down, she saw Adder's barbed tail poking out of her gut and lifting her into the air, Sigmund's eyes full of shock and horror as his mouth gaped open; blood coming from her as she let out a choking noise before being dropped to the ground.

"Mommy! Please! Please don't go like daddy! Mommy!" Sigmund said as he rushed to his mom, grabbing her head and shouting with increasingly less coherency while Adder loomed over him.

"Siggy...Sigmund...run...please..." She said quietly as her suit struggled to stabilize her, the disabling nanites sprinkled into the warhead that had taken out the chunk from her armor's back continually thwarting its attempts at saving her life.

"Mommy! Please don't go...Mommy...please..." He said as he hugged her head close to his chest. "I need you mommy..." He said while Adder chuckled and prepared to squash him with his fist.

"You'll be together soon." He laughed, only for a rapid series of strikes to slam into him; everything from shock coils to imperialists to volt drivers rained upon his hide as he stumbled backwards; roaring in agony before multiple missiles fired in quick succession followed by a continuous Ion beam sent him flailing backwards; Sylan grabbing onto Sigmund.

"I've got you!" She said, but before she could grab onto Gertrude; Adder's tail whipped around her legs as he stumbled, dragging her away from Velgora, Spire, Sylan, and Mendiar. Sigmund letting out a final wail of "Nooooo!"

But Gertrude would not go quietly, seeing that the doors needed some time to close and still having one last trick up her sleeves; she set her suit to self destruct and all remaining munitions to explode, laughing quietly even as it caused her pain. She gave her son one last look and smiled; her helmet's faceplate sliding away as she said with her dying breath "I love you...my little knight..." into her comm-link with a device in his pocket before a sudden explosion tore through the ranks of the Federation; a brilliant multihued blast that let out a most unearthly noise that drowned out even Adder's roar of pain. It was at that moment that the blast doors finally sealed shut, and Sigmund was left with no more sights of his mom.

Sigmund didn't even have time to be set down somewhere before all he could do was cry, sob, and wail. Even the take off of the vessel and its eruption from the mountains that once housed it failed to register in his mind; for only despair had any place left in his mind. Even the concerned words traded between Sylan, Spire, and the Alimbics blurred into so much noise as he cried. He didn't stop crying until he finally, mercifully fell into a nightmare ridden sleep as the Alimbic ship left a world being pounded from orbit with precision munitions aimed at any bunkers too stubborn for the ground troops; racing past the Xik'Kri'Vik ship and escaping where it could not follow; not even paying heed to the attempts by the Federation warships to slow it down with weapons fire.

* * *

_Alimbic vessel, Stellar Observation chamber._

"~Is he the only one left then?~" Velgora said, the gunmetal and green coloured alimbic looking at the light blue and green mechanoid and the brown, grey, and orange Diamont.

"Nobody else from the planet managed to escape as far as the records I had show. And anyone who survived would have been killed by the bombardment of known shelters or the sweep." Sylan said; her voice affected by the heavy weight of failure and grief that hung over the mechanoid's processors. She failed the family, the planet, the Imperium, and every time she looked at Alimbic superluminal scans of Cylosis; now swept clean of the evidence of civilization it once had and undergoing a mass extinction event; with the only reason she could figure why they'd let the planet off so lightly is that it'd be a lot harder to bullshit away the complete sterilization or annihilation of a world.

"If it's of any consolation Spire...the Sanders account is still available to me...You're still getting paid." She said to Spire who looked at her with a glare that struck her with every ounce of the loneliness he felt, and the pity he felt for someone else who would now be in his own way; alone in all the universe.

"At this point, the money doesn't mean a thing to me." He said, returning his gaze towards the ground and letting out a long sigh.

"What are you going to do with the kid?" Spire said, his voice heavy with misery.

"~We will take him into our fold.~" Said a familiar telepathic voice as Aliborak hovered into the stellar observation chamber, where Sigmund had wrapped a blanket around himself to try and have something resembling a good night's rest however fitful his dreams were.

"~We will raise him in our ways as one of our own. It is the least we can do to repay our debt to those who have awoken us.~" Aliborak said, easily being able to sense the troubled thoughts of the child as he slept.

"~Perhaps even raise him to one day attain vengeance against those who have harmed him so.~" Aliborak finished, turning back to Spire and Sylan.

"As one of your own? But this is a human child, he needs to learn how to deal with issues particular to human physiology. He needs to learn how to reconnect with the universe." Sylan said, focusing on nothing else but Aliborak as she walked towards him.

"A universe that has brought him no end of pain." Aliborak thought before Velgora spoke up.

"~We will take care of him, and if you wish to reconnect him, you are welcome to stay here.~" She said, offering her a vertical head rotation as an affirmation.

"I would have stayed even if you did not welcome me." Sylan said, turning her head towards the other Alimbic.

"~And what of you, Spire, will you stay?~" Mendiar said; the Steel grey and amethyst coloured Alimbic turning the room's attention to the last of the diamonts.

"Stay here? No. I still need answers you can't provide, but I'll be sure to visit regularly...see how the little guy's doing. Thanks for keeping my ship safe anyway." Spire said, shaking his head in response to the question; a gesture he learned from humans.

"~You will always be welcome aboard our vessel.~" Mendiar said with a hand perpendicular to her chest gesture and a small bow.

"~I suggest that you all retire for the night. The Neophyte will need to adjust to his new conditions.~" Aliborak said.

* * *

Imperial Intelligence Network Logfile

Logbook Files: Titles: Cyrenean: Military: Honorary: Non-Heredity: Cyaranar: The title accorded to the individual considered most worthy of being the Martial champion of the Cyrenean Imperium, the Cyaranar is considered the best fighter in the whole of the Imperium and is almost always a figure of legendary repute and ability. Those in the position of Cyaranar are expected to avoid scandal or be the object of controversy regarding their personal behavior or their integrity, and are thus also considered ethical leaders. The Cyaranar is equipped with the finest suit of power armour that can be afforded to them and if they consent, undergo extensive augmentations. Selected from any species in the Imperium; the Cylosian Human known as Gertrude von Sanders was the Cyaranar before the attack on Cylosis up until her death. Preceding her was the Ustronozigri Uvraskart of Ishkarman, and following her was the Tronosonak Huskarant kol Usinarza.

Logbook Files: Individuals: Cyrenean: Isharanti Galaxy: Kularantsch Arm: Luftland Star Cluster: Cylosis: Military: Cyaranar: Deceased: Human: Female: Noble: Duchess: Married: With Children: Gertrude von Sanders: Born as Gertrude von Trostoff before marrying Siegfried von Sanders, Gertrude was a military woman from the beginning, rising to the equivalent rank of Colonel at a young age and proving herself to be both an adept commander and an extremely skilled personal combatant. With equivalent equipment; she proved capable of taking on and besting just about anyone else she met, and even with an equipment or physical disadvantage she pulled through far more often than not. This eventually lead to her attaining the title of Cyaranar after personally defeating a space pirate kill team that attempted to assassinate the current Imperatrice; Yushon kol Muskarant. She served her position with distinction and was even promoted to the equivalent of marshal later. Well regarded for her kind demeanor as well as her fearsome prowess and her distinctive appearance, her death was met with Imperium wide mourning and numerous posthumous "sightings" by those refusing to believe she was dead. Some insist that the figure reported dead was one of her many body doubles, and that the woman herself is still at large.

Logbook Files: Individuals: Cyrenean: Isharanti Galaxy: Kularantsch Arm: Luftland Star Cluster: Cylosis: Political: Chancellor: Deceased: Human: Male: Noble: Duke: Married: With Children: Siegfried von Sanders: Born into an aristocratic family, Siegfried was regarded as a child with great personal ambitions but rather wanting appetite for physical endeavors. After a distinguished academic career, he went into the political sphere under the banner of a left wing party that sought to improve the Imperium at home and keep it safe from those abroad. Eventually, he was appointed Chancellor of the Imperium and lead a difficult career in a tumultuous time. Acting to the best of his ability, he helped the Imperium improve its standing and sought a precarious balance with other great powers. It was during his chancellorship that he met, fell in love with, and married Gertrude von Sanders; who bore him a son; Sigmund von Sanders However, his political skills were not enough to prevent the Cylosis incident, which ended his life and that of his wife. Regarded as a martyr by the Imperium and a backstabbing weasel by the Federation, Siegfried's legacy is considerably more mixed than his wife's.

Logbook Files: Individuals: Cyrenean: Isharanti Galaxy: Kularantsch Arm: Luftland Star Cluster: Cylosis: Civilian: Minor: Deceased: Human: Male: Noble: Duke: Single: Under five: Born to Siegfried and Gertrude Sanders, Sigmund was planned to be the first of five children until the untimely Cylosis incident. Known for being precocious and inquisitive, Sigmund was expected to achieve great things and was genetically designed in utero to be the best he could be. Unlike his mother and father, there are no confirmed reports of his death, though given the totality of the loss of life on Cylosis it can be reasonably assumed that he perished. The official Federation Account says that his mother callously poisoned him to death so that he would not have to live with his father's mistakes, while the Imperial account insists that it is more likely that he died with his mother. However, as he remains one of the few personages of note whose death was not confirmed, many strongly doubt that he is dead.

News: Federal News Broadcaster: Tragedy at Cylosis and K-2L: In a tragic series of events, rogue Federation forces have devastated the long standing Imperial world of Cylosis on the same day that a Space Pirate fleet under the command of the dreaded Space Pirate Enforcer Ridley assaulted K-2L to seize aflorite resources. Admiral Ysdane Leskolian; known for her hatred of the Imperium and her declaration of secession from the Federation, is believed to be the culprit of the Cylosis attack; which has cost the lives of over seven billion sapient beings. Reports say that she had uncovered evidence of a Cyrenean superweapon under construction at Cylosis and put it upon herself to stop it and "save the federation from that two faced scum Sanders". However, in her zeal to deal with the superweapon, it seems that she wiped out the population of the planet and killed the Chancellor and his bloodline, claiming that Siegfried "Died like a peasant", that Gertrude "died as all terrorists do, in an irrational last stand" and claims that Gertrude poisoned her son when it was clear the day was lost. The Imperium of course; claims that this account of events is slanderous lies and demands that Ysdane be brought to justice.

On K-2L; which happened at roughly the same time not too far away from Cylosis, the Space Pirates snuck a fleet past Federation fringe patrols and Imperial anti-piracy units with the aid of what are believed to be advanced stealth systems so that the notorious war criminal Ridley could lead his forces on a devastating and unprovoked raid that killed the entirety of the mining colony's population of a hundred million; destroying all of the planet's far flung settlements and ruining its biosphere. While the Confederacy of Thebez; better known as the Space Pirates, are infamously opaque, we have determined that Ridley's flag ship was confirmed destroyed with all hands on deck lost when Rodney Aran; the Planetary Governor, detonated the stolen Aflorite in his ship at the cost of his own life. However, a second fleet managed to arrive and evacuate all remaining space pirates before the Federation's patrols could arrive, and so far there seems to be no sign of survivors. Rodney Aran is to be posthumously awarded with the Golden Quasar, and his wife Virginia; whose burnt remains were also identified; is to be awarded the Silver Quasar.

As a response to the tragedy, cosmic governments are declaring a harsher stance against piracy and renegade actions, and further sanctions have been voted into place against the Confederacy with many pushing for a state of war against it to punish it for its refusal to abide by international law and and policy of raiding other states and non governmental organizations and the Federation has promised to the Imperium to bring the perpetrators of the devastating attack on Cylosis to justice. Polls are already showing increased preferences for an intensification of Federation military actions across the cosmos to better safeguard its territory and engage in joint operations with allies to make the universe a safer place for everyone.

* * *

Author's note: This is probably the largest chapter I've ever written, and it's also one of the chapters I've gotten finished in the shortest amount of time on a per word basis too!

I'm thinking of trying out a first person style later...but I'm not sure if that would be a good idea or if it should be reserved for a spin off.

Anyway, I did think about having Gertrude survive for a time, but ultimately decided against it, since I thought that having that strong of a connection to his past still around would probably take the story in a very different direction.

Similarly; while the Dead Hand made a pretty poor showing here; don't expect this to be the last you see of them, and do expect them to not be such pushovers later on. The same goes for Xar'Quk'Xon.

Also, I'm finally getting into the funner stuff to write! Yay! Though I'm sure I'll be writing things that will depress me soon. And yes, logbook entries can be biased or wrong, since they're in universe sources of information (Sigmund is very much alive; sorry "he was dead the whole time theorists).

Also, a big thank you goes out to Mental Omega for helping me with writing! Check out the dude's stuff, he's pretty brilliant.


	5. Rebirth

"_Frailty is a flaw best corrected at youth._" - Aliborak

* * *

_Alimbic Ship, Ushzegora Izaramail; "Eye of Discovery" _

"~The human will need to undergo a number of improvements if he is to see justice for what has been done to him.~" Aliborak explained to Sylan, whose visor still showed a sine wave signifying skepticism.

"You are asking for quite radical enhancements without him being old enough to understand the implications." She said, her arms folded over her chestplate as Aliborak looked down upon the mechanoid, almost disdainfully so at that.

"~Without our path, what would he be? Struggling for a job? Some politician always looking over his shoulder for fear of Federation assassins? A mere faceless soldier in an already vast army? This process will not even deform him, he will still appear normal to his kind, but he will be as a god among them; vastly superior to any of them physically, and more capable of using a combat skin to its fullest potential.~" Aliborak said, dismissively shaking its head in ninety degrees to the left.

"But why so early? It hasn't even been a day since he arrived here."

"~This process is best done early in the lifespan. That way he will have minimal psychological issues with adaptation as he will not remember what it was like to be merely enhanced to what his parents desired.~" Velgora said, her voice trying to be reassuring to the mechanoid.

"Someone who has known strength all the-" Sylan started before Aliborak interrupted her.

"~Their life will never know the value of it. Thank you for your platitudes. I believe he's had enough experiences with powerlessness to last him a life time.~" Aliborak said.

"~It will be swift and painless Sylan, he will only need some rest after the process is done before we can start to train him. A week of rest should do him well.~" Mendiar said, Sylan letting out a mechanical replica of a sigh as she finally conceded.

"Alright, go ahead." Sylan said, the Alimbics all looking to one another and nodding.

"~Please, do follow us.~" Mendiar said as one of the Alimbics telekineitcally lifted a still shocked looking Sigmund; who weakly blubbered out a cry for his mother before the Alimbic placed their left on his forehead and bid him to sleep.

* * *

_Chamber of Transmutation_

"~The Neophyte is responding well to all infusions and alterations.~" One of the Alimbics reported to Aliborak who switched his gaze from watching the toddler float suspended in the solution contained in the hard-light barriers to checking the read outs.

"~Is he ready for the attomechanical transfusion?~" Aliborak said as he nodded; pleased at the boy's ready acceptance of the Alimbic genetic alterations, even the implantation of an Alimbic genetic marker so that Alimbic technology would recognize him as one of their own.

"~He should be more than ready commander.~" Mendiar said, offering her superior a pleased nod.

With those words, tiny machines ranging from the simply microscopic to the subatomic were infested into the boy's body, the boy kicking a bit before resuming his prior floating position; his breathing returning to normal after a brief fit.

After running some simulations and observing his life signs for a day, paired with some dips into the skeins of the future, the Alimbics determined that he had been entirely successful with his implantations, and removed him from the device to rest and recover from the experience.

"~So we know that at least one part of the plan works. When he gets older, we shall introduce him to his combat skin.~" Aliborak said, most of the Alimbics nodding save for Velgora, who sensed Sigmund's troubled dreams and placed her hand on his head to banish the nightmares and put happier images in their stead.

"~Sleep well Neophyte.~" She said as she brought him to his bed and let him rest in a room that the Alimbics had designed to be a recreation of the room he once had; filled with comfortably familiar design stylings rather than the harsher and more alien products of Alimbic architecture; with soft blue lights instead of the seas of yellows, drab greens, and greys that dominated the Alimbic colour palette.

* * *

_Planet Zemanatora. One year later. _

A world with no native sapients or colonies that still stood the test of time; Zemanatora had once been a staging ground for all the members of the Alliance that stood against the Dominion all those years ago; making it a perfect meeting place for the remaining populations of the prior generation of civilizations. Spire was the first Diamont to attend a meeting in decades, Aliborak and his alimbics the first in ten thousand cosmic years.

Many things went over the discussion table, but perhaps the most important occurred after during one of the recess periods of the meetings when Grey Voice pulled Velgora to the side, the Chozo looking dead on at the Alimbic after she was dragged into conversation with him.

"~May I ask about your intent Chozo?~" Velgora said, curious about what her counterpart had to say.

"What exactly did you see that terrified you into such inaction at Cylosis?" Grey Voice said, his tone making it clear he was not going to settle for any half answers or bent truths.

"~Aliborak saw one of them...one of the Xik'kri'vik. Bearing the garbs and the forms of a noble of the war caste. He even possessed a fully armed and operational Xik'Kir'Vik warship. Aliborak feared that staying long enough to help the Cylosians would have endangered his crew, and bade us to stay until the beast was forced to retreat.~" Velgora said; using her ability to control and emit energy to make an image of Xar'Quk'Xon and his warship in all their glory.

"Old Bird will be displeased to hear of this. If one of them truly has slipped past the prison we put for all their kind, then he is certainly attempting to free them. And if he already has found allies in the Federation..."

"~Then he has likely put himself beyond our reach for now. Striking at his allies in FUCIN would probably vindicate all their worries about us.~" Velgora finished for him.

"Yes. At the same time, while Spire remains in the public eye and so long as we remain in the good graces of the Federation, the Lost and the Hatchling should remain safe from the Seeker. And if there are others who may find themselves in his scopes, we will do what we can to safeguard them. But what of you, and your Neophyte? How can you protect him?" Grey Voice said, briefly putting the tip of his beak between his right thumb and index fingers as he pondered.

"~We can keep our ship well hidden, and it shouldn't be too hard to find states willing to offer him shelter. And once they're old enough, I believe that they will have what it takes to put an end to the Seeker once and for all.~" Velgora said, placing a hand on Grey Voice's shoulder; which he rather quickly brushed away.

"The other thing that worries me is what you know of parenting. How much do you know of how to raise a human?" Grey Voice said skeptically, placing one hand over another while he clutched a staff.

"~I am sure that the widely available information of the subject will be of use, and we have one of his caretaker mechanoids from his homeworld. I myself want to learn more of raising his kind, but Aliborak is confident that he can handle the boy as well as you can take care of the girl.~" She said, though her telepathic voice noticeably wavered in her second sentence as she shifted her gaze to the forests outside of the circular meeting chambers.

"And yet you doubt Aliborak?" Grey Voice asked, raising one of his brows.

"~He is prone to thinking more highly of himself than is warranted, and all his talk of wanting to restore the empire worries me. Does he see a son to raise or a prototype for a weapon? That is a question that eats away at my thoughts constantly.~" She said, turning back to the Chozo and nodding.

"I will do what I can to extend what help I may." Grey Voice said with a return nod.

* * *

_Hall of Armaments, six years later.  
_

Sigmund had grown much since his introduction to the ship's community, and now he walked a hallway filled with statues to Alimbic martial glory; telepathic chanting going throughout the hall as he walked down the green, yellow, red, blue, violet, and orange corridors, idly swallowing as he felt the attentions of every Alimbic on the ship fixated directly on him; with Aliborak, Sylan, Mendiar and Velgora all waiting at the farthest end of the hallway.

He had grown strong, reaching a height of one point five meters and his muscles had become lean and well developed from his training; though the chubbiness of childhood had not left his features anymore than they left any other athletic ten year old. His silver hair shone a bit in the lighting of the hall way and his red eyes looked in every direction as all the assorted machines one would expect from the Alimbic ship kept fixated on him. Voldrums, Guardiams, Psycho Bits, Crash Pillars, turrets, and more all made sure the boy was clearly in their sights as the crowd of alimbics parted to make way for him, with even Aliborak himself stepping aside to present him with his newest creation.

An armour mostly coloured in a metallic tyrian purple on the chestplate and helmet as well as the back, with standard metallic blue plating on the rest of the armour, with the flexible portion beneath the armour plating being mostly black or very dark grey. On the back of the left palm was an orange sphere with the same symbol projected from alimbic holologs imposed on it in black. The armour was generally form fitting, clinging reasonably close to the body and not meant for massive bulk at all. The pauldrons flared out to the sides before the tips curled slightly inwards; forming spiked points at their edges, sticking out past the shoulders by a few inches.

The boots had pointed ends coming out of the shin guards that would provide extra projection to the knees, while the boots came to slight tips at the toes; enough to drive a point into someone with a solid kick. The soles were mostly conventional, but the legs overall seemed to almost evoke some kind of insect in design or as close as they could be without being problematic for the human wearer. The armor also had points coming in front of the elbow guards; likely to jam into someone if combat got that close; and even the fingers of the gauntlets seemed to have the beginnings of claws at their tips. The arm cannon was generally cyllindrical, coloured a dull metallic red and beneath it was a structure that seemed rather like a bayonet of some sort. The helmet had two small eye pieces where his eyes would be, and a large central optic that he could close up with a deployable metal plate if wanted; the central optic wasn't actually needed for the suit, but both recalled its makers and could serve as a means of seeing if the eyepieces and secondary nanocameras were taken out.

The generally rounded helmet fit well around the skull, with two extensions towards the bottom; more small bumps with pointed tips really; just about where his chin would be; that almost hinted at mandibles. The helmet also had a subtle and small crest, a ridge that went along the top of the helmet and ended in a small light, and two antennae that emerged from the temples at a slanted angle (something meant to evoke his mother's helmet); though they could press into the rest of the suit if need be. TAt the mouth was a sort of rounded heater shield like construct that provided the face with just a bit of extra protection; meant to slide over the otherwise largely flattened primary faceplate. At the back were a pair of jump thrusters to boost the height he gained when he leaped, and the design of the torso and abdominal armour seemed to mix the best of both late medieval and athropod carapaces; all meant to provide the growing boy with all the protection he needed.

"~Claim what is yours child.~" Velgora said as Sigmund gulped nervously and extended a hand out towards the suit as it stood there; arms stretched out to its side. When he touched it, it disintegrated into light, making him yelp as he was tempted to stand back, but knowing that everyone was watching, he closed his eyes and just let the suit's cyan particles swirl around him, bathing him with light as they for a time; made it impossible to see him. He dared to open his eyes again and briefly found himself standing in an interface suit that looked like gunmetal grey flayed musculature with iridium coloured plating where the whites of the muscles would be; and then closed again as his zero suit's facemask came over him and the light show started once again.

Then when the light cleared and he opened his eyes again, he found the readouts of an HUD staring at him, and when he breathed; he breathed in air purified by the helmet, and when he closed his left hand into a fist, he could feel the gauntlet move with him, and his other hand sat comfortably in the arm cannon. He didn't feel weighed down by his armour at all, none of his movements were restricted and the suit and its interface mesh and flexible interweave between the interface suit and the armour plating; all felt entirely natural. He looked up at one of the taller statues and leaped for it, going farther through the air than he ever had before and finding himself shocked when he found himself on the shoulder of the statue.

"...Wow..." He said with amazement as he looked down at everyone below him.

"~I do think he's bonded well with his combat skin.~" Aliborak said before turning his focus to the red central optics and eyepieces of Sigmund's new helmet.

* * *

_Training Room Alpha, a year later._

"~You're not using your scan visor enough Sigmund, if you had; you would have known how to deal with the Cretaphid by now.~" Aliborak said as Sigmund circled around the energy beams fired by the rotating cybernetic pillar, using trial and error to try and determine what worked at what didn't.

"+Sorry.+" Sigmund said as he shook his head and activated his suit's scan systems, finding that the key to defeating the Cretaphid lay in shooting the blue circles that weren't busy emitting energy rays. This time, a rapid series of power beam shots brought the Cretaphid's more vulnerable central crystal out for him to shoot at; and with a volley of shots into the crystal, the match was considered concluded and the cretaphid returned to its storage.

"~Now, let's see how you deal with more agile enemies.~" Mendiar said as she released many waves of Psychobits into the training room, Sigmund vaulting onto a horizontall laid out platform to evade their initial barrage of fire as he fired stun shots from his arm cannon; the psychobits falling to the ground to be reclaimed by nanoglobs as they hit the ground, the boy smiling to himself under his helmet as he leaped onto a platform emerging from a tall pillar, a platform that revolved around the center of the platform, giving him an extra challenge of calculating jump distance as he landed on the platform, firing on psychobits he had gained an elevation advantage over as he did so.

More psychobits were dropped out of the engagement as Sigmund skillfully dodged a trio of charged shots with a kick flip that brought him in grabbing distance of one of the revolving platforms, letting him grab onto the bar connecting it to the pillar get a bit of swing going as launched himself at a flying and moving platform nearby; landing shots into the eyes of the psychobits as he did so while the Alimbics decided to let the guardians into the room to surprise him.

First warned of their presence by stun missiles streaking through the air, Sigmund looked at one of the micro-cameras that the Alimbics were observing his progress from as the Guardians started jumping after him, giving Sigmund a rather crazy idea; jumping onto one of the Psycho bits and digging his left hand into it as the drone spun around; trying to fire in any direction it could to hit him while he aimed for the heads of the guardians, making them stumble backwards before he jumped off of the psycho bit, adjusting his course mid air with his thrusters to let him land upright on a teleporting platform he had managed to judge the timing of; letting out his own stun missiles to break up the pack of Guardians while Voldrums and crash pillars soon entered the room.

Sighing annoyedly as he fired off simulated electrolob balls at the ground to deal with the Voldrum swarms before firing off a pair of stun missiles when he caught Psychobits approaching him, he nearly missed a guardian getting dangerously close to him before the platform he was on teleported him to the other side of the room.

"~Pay better attention to your suit's sensors, do not just rely on your eyes.~" Aliborak said as Sigmund found a crash pillar leaping onto his platform and leaping up to try and squash him beneath it.

"~Use the tunnel behind you to escape.~" Medrian said as he looked behind himself and curled himself into his alternate mode; forming into a three part insectoid shape, whose overall body shape resembled that of a quatroid; and whose six bladed legs quickly scurried him to safety while Sigmund found the whole experience of being turned into a disembodied state to control the Crawler alternate form rather confusing and disorienting, finding himself in a small maze.

Inside the room, he found Quatroids and voldrums waiting for him, though these quatroids had been modified to ultimately be harmless to him beyond slowing him down some.

"~You will need to use your alternate forms combat capabilities to get past this challenge, do you feel up for the task?~" Aliborak said as Sigmund sized up his opposition and the route he'd need to take to get out of the section. Four levels of platforms, the first of which had a small hole, the second of which was three small platforms leading down to two rather large ones, and the last one being five small flying platforms over the floor.

"+You bet I am.+" He said, feeling invincible with the armour around his body and had he not been in Crawler form; he would have grinned. He leaped onto the first voldrom, tipping it over after disabling it and dropping a bomb that emerged from the head of his crawler form to blow away a pair of quatroids that prepared to leap at him, clearing a path to the second level where he quickly shoved another quatroid off the platform, leaving a pair of bombs for voldroms dropping down from above to deal with while he dropped down onto the right of the third level's platforms. But with a trio of quatroids waiting, he surmised he couldn't leap far enough to avoid being tackled by them under his own power, and decided to deal with that issue by dropping a bomb just as he jumped to propel him far and fast enough for him to stab his legs onto the other platform, then drop down onto one of the floating platforms just as it got below him.

Then jumping out of the rather simple puzzle, he transformed and dropped a number of bombs for a waiting crash pillar and scurried forward; unmorphing as he slid across the ground, knocking the legs of a number of guardians out from under them before quickly turning to fire electrolobs at incoming Psycho-bits, then quickly making a spin kick to knock away incoming Voldrums; all the while feeling an excitement like nothing he ever had before as he sent Alimbic combat mechanoids flying all around him. However, so caught up he was in his excitement that he didn't notice one quatroid following him and jumping onto his helmet, prompting the Alimbics to halt the exercise and telekinetically force the quadtroid off of his face as his suit disappated into blue light; the mechanoids stopping all activities.

"~You got careless and forgot to notice one of the smallest but most danerous foes in the test. This could have easily cascaded into an overall failure and your potential death. Never ignore what your armour tells you, it is more than just a tool; it is an extension of yourself and you must pay it the same heed you would any other bodily function.~" Aliborak chastised him, Sigmund frowning as he received another in a long series of lectures from the Alimbic.

"Oh come on, I could have handled it. It was just one mistake, like all the other times you said I failed the simulation." Sigmund said with an annoyed sigh.

"~He's been at these training exercises for more than twenty four hours...perhaps it's time for him to take a break?~" Velgora said, going over the footage of his combat simulation performance.

"Yeah...can I get a rest? I've been fighting sim-enemies all day." Sigmund said as he huffed out, Sylan entering the room and looking around.

"I think I can say that twenty four hours is more than enough training for a while." Sylan said as she offered a hand to him.

"Thanks..." He said as he got out of his sitting position and clutched her hand tightly, pulling himself up and shaking his head.

"I uh...really need a shower I think..." Sigmund plaintively noted, with Sylan taking his hand to lead him out of the room.

"~A year of practicing and he's already maneuvering expertly. I think we've done quite well for him.~" Aliborak said in a pleased tone to his comrades.

"~He's quite a natural with the combat skin yes.~" Mendiar agreed.

"~Combat ability alone is not what makes a hero. You need to set aside more time for more academic and spiritual learning. Unless you really think all situations can be fought out of. Similarly, I think you need to look more into his development. His physiology is already preparing to make the transition for sexual maturity and we should be ready for the changes that come with that phase of life.~" Velgora said, offering the others her reports on her studies on Sigmund's growing body.

"~I'm sure that Sylan and Spire can teach him everything he needs to know about human courtship rituals and how to deal with adolescence and socialization.~" Aliborak said as he went over the reports, scrutinizing them in a matter of moments.

"~Sylan is a houseservant mechanoid and Spire is a hermaphroditic silicon based being; they can't substitute for others of his own species or a near-human companion.~" velgora said harshly, the light in her eye dimming slightly as she narrowed her gaze.

"~I won't be bringing more humans onto the ship if that's what you're asking. We cannot go breaking our protocols just because he feels lonely.~" Aliborak said, vehemntly denying what he thought was going to be her suggestion.

"~The Zebesian Chozo are raising a human, are they not? She would be of his age and of the appropriate gender for him to deal with any feelings brought about by adolescence from our determination of his orientation. We could arrange a meeting soon, perhaps even bringing Spire along. They are all supposed to meet after all.~" Mendiar suggested, with both of the Alimbics looking at one another and nodding.

"~I'd suggest a meeting on Zebes first, then we can see about showing her the ship.~" She added

* * *

_Zebes, a week later.  
_

Sigmund shook his head as he walked through the portal, taking a moment to look at his hands to make sure everything was still there before shaking his head; returning his hands to the pockets of his comfortable stretch pants while his T-shirt fluttered a bit in the breeze. He shuffled a bit in his shoes before walking to catch up with the Alimbics and Sylan, his pace a bit hurried as he had to keep up with substantially taller beings than himself. He chewed his lip a bit as he followed the Alimbics, then his expression brightened when he caught sight of Spire, who seemed busy with a staring contest against a Torizo.

"Spire!" He said, managing a quick sprint over to the Diamont who let out a deep chuckle as he beckoned the boy closer.

"Hey, kid; how are you?" He said warmly as Immaneul gave his rocky exterior a hug.

"Been good, they've been training me a lot lately." He said, looking back at the Alimbics and waving at them before turning back to the multiton rock man.

"So I've been told. How good are you now?" He said, his gravelly voice still sounding like an earthquake despite the passage of eight years. Of course Sigmund didn't really know much about how time affected Diamonts.

"I can handle more than a hundred enemies now!" He said with a wide, beaming smile as Spire gave him a pat on the back with his forearm.

"That's the spirit kid. Keep on learning, it'll do you good. Shoot, maybe one day you can be as good as I am." He said wryly, liking the look of challenge that formed in his eyes.

"You're on. How many enemies can you fight in the sim?" He asked, to which Spire shrugged.

"Dunno, thousands. But I've fought real enemies using real weapons. Not just stun guns. Give it a few years and I'm sure you'll be using real weapons too." He said as he returned his focus to the Torizo.

"Huh...thing's not flinched." He mused, grinding his orb hand against his chin.

"It's a statue, it's not supposed to flinch." Said a female voice that brought Sigmund's head snapping to attention while the adults talked about boring things he didn't pay much attention to. He blinked a bit as he saw a blonde girl with striking blue eyes clad in a white outfit that didn't seem the least bit dirty despite all the mud and dirt around. He felt himself about to say something _really_ stupid and bit his tongue while Spire nudged him when he noticed his eyes wandering.

"Uhhh...hi..." He said while the girl looked at Spire and shared a nod.

"Sigmund? This is Samus. Samus, this is Immaneul. Thought you two ought to meet some day." Spire said, looking between the two and making a gesture for them to get closer.

"Uhmm...why are you with all the bird people?" He said, earning a "pfft"out of her as she looked at the Alimbics talking to her Chozo guardians.

"Why don't your guardians have necks?" She said, deciding that one stupid question deserved another.

"...I never thought about that." Sigmund said as he looked at the Alimbics again, then back at her.

"You know Spire?" He asked, forming as flat an expression as he could while she gave him a second once over, seeming to focus most on his eyes and hair.

"We met after I got put on Zebes; he's amazingly cool and tells the best stories. How did you meet him?" She said as she patted Spire's heavy shoulder with her comparatively tiny hand.

"Mom and dad hired him when I was little. He keeps on visiting me even though I'm with them now." He said, casting a quick glance at the Alimbics, to which she immediately understood the implications and decided it would be best not to pry.

"So, where are you from?" He asked.

"K-2L. What about you?" She said, quirking a brow as she got a bit closer to the other.

He almost said "That's not a real name" before Spire nudged him in the elbows while he was in the middle of saying "That's" and then said "Cylosis." Instead.

Sensing that this line of conversation was probably going to crash in burn in style, Spire let out a loud harrumph and stood up. "Why don't we go get something to eat? I'm starved." He said as he pushed himself up, leaving a rather noticeable indentation of his rear where he was sitting before while he stood up and stretched a bit.

Dinner table.

Sigmund quaffed down the offered potatoes; who had grown well and hardy in Zebesian soil, stuffing his face as he listened in on the conversations being shared by the table patrons.

"So I stood there as this Red Space Pirate demanded that I surrender and I looked at it like it was crazy. I mean, me? Surrender." Spire said, spinning a yarn after shoveling some rocky looking food into his mouth and then chasing it down with a piping hot drink before continuing.

"I went, buddy, I've wiped out the rest of your unit and I've beaten some of them to death using one of your IFVs as a club. You're the one who should be surrendering." Drawing hearty laughter from the patrons.

"And then he shouts at me "I die with honor" and so I ended up having to smash the guy into paste. Well, he certainly did die, but I'm not sure he did so with honour." Spire said, putting his cup down as wizened Chozo, hopeful alimbics, the two humans, and the one mechanoid seated shared some much needed mirth.

"~Tell me hatchling, what have you done lately?~" Velgora said, turning her attention to the Blonde as soon as she calmed down from her Spire induced excitement.

"Well, I managed to ace my agility tests yesterday; which was a total blast." Samus said with a wide grin after she gulped down some green juice, idly twirling some of her hair in her hands.

"~What was the agility test like?~" Velgora said, leaning slightly forward to show her curiosity.

"Oh man, it was full of some of the most intense obstacle courses ever. Had to dodge lasers, missiles, figure out how to stick the landings on a bunch of moving platforms; even had to practice freezing and jumping on rippers." She said, briefly giving Sigmund a challenging look before looking back to the Alimbic.

"~Already using the ice beam are you?~" Velgora said, her head tilting a bit to mimic a human gesture of curiosity.

"Absolutely. I'm sure you let Sigmund test out plenty of toys, unless you think he's not ready for them yet." She said, giving another look and a smirk at Sigmund who shot back with a steely glare as she gave him the briefest hint of her tongue being stuck out at him.

"Oh I can totally beat you in a spar." Sigmund said, a sudden silence falling over the crowd.

"Pfft, no you can't. I'll take you on any day. It won't even be hard." She said with a cocky smirk, pushing aside her empty plate.

"Meet me an hour from now at that obstacle course of yours." Sigmund said, Aliborak quickly raising his hands to protest this unauthorized engagement before Mendiar cut in.

"~A test of skill between the two of you would be an excellent way to see what you have learned.~" She said.

"+So long as you two avoid causing too much chaos.+" Mother Brain said, her Camera drone zooming in closely on the two.

"There is no need to worry mother brain, I am sure they will exercise caution." Old Bird said with a small chuckle, raising his hand to dismiss the drone.

* * *

_Proving grounds, Zebes_

Sigmund and Samus stood resplendent in their respective armoursuits in an indoor facility with enormously high walls, all manner of moving, revolving, rotating, or otherwise non-stationary platforms, plenty of spaces for their alt forms to try to crawl through for advantages, systems designed to shift the environment of the area if need be; though currently it was set to replicate a tropical setting much like brinstar; and Chozo statues clutching spheres were scattered around the field; which was also populated by assorted hard-light simaulcrums of enemies and mechanoids. All overseen by Mother Brain with the supervision of the gathered Alimbics and Chozo and based on recommendations from Spire's combat experience.

"Your weapons are locked into nonlethal mode and your suits are set to lower their energy count as if they had suffered the appropriate "damage" when hit. The first one to be desuited is the loser. Any weapon you have on hand is legal and there are no time limits. Are there any questions?" Sylan said, looking at the two from her floating platform; the two standing on a relatively flat spot of rocky terrain atop some shallow water.

"I'm good. Just try not to flip when I hand Immy his ass. He's your golden boy isn't he?" She said with a cheery grin beneath her helmet, turning around to Sigmund who rolled his eyes beneath his own helmet; the faceguards of his helmet sliding into place and the central optic being quickly concealed by a sliding metal plate while his eyepieces glinted.

"Maybe the Chozo will need to write some new heiroglyphs telling all about how I kicked the hatchling's arse all over the place." He said, a smirk forming on his face while Samus tilted her head at him and shrugged her shoulders before letting out a laugh through her helmet as she set her helmet's visor to opaque mode, shaking her head as she leveled her arm cannon into a firing position; a move matched by Sigmund.

"Begin." Sylan said as Sigmund immediately began rushing forward, starting himself into a sprint meant to put her in close range of his power beam shots; which he applied liberally in an attempt to suppress his opponent who deftly launched herself into a forward flip over his head to avoid the incoming hit. Sigmund skidded to a halt; his boots clamping into the ground to arrest his momentum as he spun around to try and catch her off guard with a charged missile locked on right at her.

Detonating the projectile with a shot from her own beam weapon; followed by a barrage of several more shots from her icebeam; Sigmund launched himself into a precognizant kickflip; starting up his Alimbic electrolob to send a quick volley of immensely powerful electrical orbs at Samus' way. "Oh no you don't." She hissed as she already dived off the platform and curled into morph ball mode the moment she way the glowing parts of Sigmund's arm cannon start to change colour.

Charging off in pursuit, leaping forward with a boost from high jump systems before his thrusters gave him a second boost to try and get some lead over the morph ball, Sigmund kept up his electrolob fire to try and flush her out, noticing something on his HUD's and quickly turning around just in time to avoid an incoming tackle, moving to the side and grabbing at her legs to swing her around and hurl her out of his way.

Grunting as she flew, Samus furled back into her moph ball to cushion her impact before unmorphing and firing off a trio of extremely quickly launched missiles that forced the boy into a ducking motion followed by curling into his own crawler form; crawling towards her as fast as he could before unmorphing in a shoulder check position, however Samus managed to roll into a morphball just in time; dropping a bomb that Sigmund couldn't avoid that sent him into a very ungraceful reunion with the ground; his face hitting the tree head first with a loud SMACK!

But being as quick as he was, he managed to recover in time to roll out of the way of another series of missiles his managed to warn him about as he turned towards her and took aim with the subweapon he found the most to his liking. His arm cannon made a few shifting and whirring noises as the glowing indicators turned light blue; and out from the cannon came arcing bolts of super dense neutrinos.

"Bet they didn't teach you anything about this!" He said with a grin beneath his helmet as he aimed it right at Samus, not bracing his arm cannon with his free hand as he circle strafed around her, bring himself over to a stony platform as he leaped over the thick roots of a tree.

"Gnnh!" Samus grunted as she tried to get away from the relentless punishment of the shockwave. Having never dealt with the Shock Coil before, Samus attempted to dodge with a rolling maneuver to the side, but the energy simply tracked her and struck her anyway. Seeing her energy counter starting to go down increasingly rapidly as the intensity of the noise the shock coil made increased; she had to think fast, and think fast she did. Quickly shooting off a missile to force Sigmund to jump, she immediately shot another missile at him to force him to use his thrusters again; then started charging up her ice beam, then waited for him to be at the point of his jump where he could not alter his course in time; and shot off a freezing orb of energy that struck the boy and encased him in a thick layer of ice.

"Hold still and it'll be over quickly." She said as the girl took aim. Starting up a well practiced process; her arm cannon clicked as it fired missiles into him repeatedly, his shields taking a heavy beating as one projectile after the other slammed into him. With the ice all around him, he could feel the vibrations as the solidified air and water vapor transmitted the force to him even as it blasted chunks of ice away, but he could also feel that he had sufficient leverage to try breaking free, pushing himself against his icy confinement until he was rewarded with the sound of ice shattering all around him, and not a moment too soon, as Samus was already trying to vault over him.

"Mind staying down?" He said as his warrior's training kicked in, his perception of time slowing down as he reacted. Reaching into his experience with close quarters combat, he grabbed her by the left foot and swung her down towards the ground, letting her hit the ground hard as he prepared to come in for a leaping downwards stabbing motion with his arm cannon.

Firing off her suit's back thrusters, she shot away from Sigmund, leaving his arm cannon to stab into the ground while she came around for a quick drop kick to his head, knocking him backwards with a kick that would have stoved in the ribs of any normal person dozens of times over; shoving him backwards with his boots digging out furrows into the mud. However, he couldn't rest on his laurels for long, as he saw her charing at him with the intention to put another charged shot right into his head; prompting him to bring his left arm up to catch her arm cannon while preparing his own charged missile shot. Having braced for the impact, he managed to catch Samus in a lock; arresting her momentum instantly.

Immediately bringing her feet to the ground to avoid getting overwhelmed in the lock; Samus dug her heels in and gritted her teeth as Sigmund pushed, hew left hand trying to keep his arm cannon from pointing at her; the device having opened partially up to charge up a missile blast while her own cannon nurtured an orb of deathly cold inside.

"Give up already." Sigmund said after a grunt of effort as the two's struggle cracked the stone beneath them; their boots pushing through the platform and digging out gouges as they tried to gain more leverage over the other.

"I...never...quit!" Samus said as she strained against her opponent. He was slightly physically stronger than she was, slightly taller too, however, he was also slightly slower than she was; and his extremely aggressive style of fighting did have some downsides.

"You...can...start...now!" He said as he started to slowly push her downwards, the ground beneath her giving way as he started to force her onto a knee. That's when she fired up her boots and the thrusters on her back, throwing him just off balance enough to slam her head into his chest and knock him back far enough for a follow up knee blow to push him farther back; where upon she let off her charged shot, forcing Sigmund to fire off his missile to intercept the charge beam blast; the missile being enveloped in the icy blast that depleted itself against the projectile.

He didn't even have time to blink before she was on him, a quick jab to his stomach making him recoil as he was struck. He retaliated with left elbow aimed at her head, which she successfully ducked under only for him to follow up with a knee that shoved her back with an impact that; while capable of pushing an old; pre-space travel era Earth's tank's frontal hull armour inwards, only managed to push her back somewhat as her shields took the brunt of the impact. She retaliated with an overhead swing with her arm cannon; using it like a club to bring it down on his shoulders after a feint brought his blocking attentions elsewhere; only for her to take an uppercut to the gut in retaliation.

Slamming each other's heads into one another with a mutual headbutt, two pushed away from one another and fired off a missile at one another; her firing off the one super missile she had and him letting loose a charged missile, the projectiles impacting at near point blank and the shockwaves slamming into the shields, fireballs erupting as the last bit of energy from their suits' shielding faded and the two were left standing in their zero-energy interface suits; their armours disappearing in fizzles of light while the two flew back; Samus landing on her back after rolling a good distancet; and him falling on his rear, if only because he hit his head against a tree branch which stopped his momentum.

She managed to recover first, the blonde coughing a bit and blinking as she got used to seeing without the visor all of a sudden, her long hair tied up into a pony tail that only managed to fit inside of her helmet in the first place due to its space altering fields and her blue eyes' pupils shrinking as they adapted. He on the other hand; groaned audibly as he kept his eyes; highly sensitive to bright lights in the first place thanks to their red colour; squeezed tight while a hand ran through his silver hair to rub against where he hit it. His shield caught the force alright; but his suit's feedback still gave him unpleasant pain to remind him he had taken a hit.

She came up to him with an extended hand, a smile on her face. "You did pretty good. Thanks for that." She said as she gripped his hand and pulled him up, a few hard breaths coming from him as he shook his head, looking up to the gathered watchers before turning back to Samus and giving her a nod.

"Call it a draw?" He said, quirking a brow.

"Hey I got up first." She said playfully, letting go of him as he eyed the Zero Suit.

"How is that thing not uncomfortable for you?" He asked as she gave the grey coloured flayed musculature esque nanoweave of Sigmund's zero suit a once over, then gave a look at her own blue zero suit, then looked to him and shrugged.

"I don't really notice it over my clothes. You?" She asked as he also gave his own shrug.

"Well, I guess." He said as Aliborak and Old Bird moved down from hover platforms.

"Well done Samus, you've certainly seem to have taken well to your training. You must learn to play more into your strengths though. But perhaps during our next session?" Old Bird said, patting Samus on the shoulder as she beamed back up at her caretaker, the wizened old Chozo pulling her into a hug that she gladly returned, soft chuckles traded between the two as she nuzzled her head into his chest.

"Thanks Old Bird. I'll make sure to do better next time." She said after breaking away from the hug with her guardian, giggling as he ran his clawed hands through her hair and gave her golden locks a good old ruffle

"~Quite disappointing really, Neophyte. You made a substantial number of mistakes which ultimately cost you victory. These flaws will need to be corrected if we are to be any closer to our goals.~" Aliborak chastised, his hands folded behind his back as he gave a disapproving downward tilt to his head and levitated himself upwards. Sigmund's face turned into a frown and he almost vocalized a protest before Aliborak cut him off.

"~I am not in the mood for your excuses. There is much work to be done.~" Aliborak said with measured disdain, Sigmund's shoulders slumping and an ashamed look casting itself on his face, something noticed by Old Bird who cast Aliborak a venemous look, followed by a squint from Samus.

* * *

_Later that day._

"~Do you not think that you were too harsh on Sigmund.?~" Velgora said, Aliborak looking out at the Zebesian sunset.

"~No, if he is to be the _Neophyte_ of legend, then he must be a warrior without flaw. His performance against the Hatchling was filled with flaw. How can he be expected to be a force for peace when he has yet to properly master what is taught of him?~" He said, not even turning to acknowledge her.

"~But~" She said before a hand from Aliborak cut her off.

"~You are in no position to talk yourself, I still remember your defiance of my orders on Cylosis.~" He said scornfully.

"~He would have died if I had not intervened.~"

"~That is not the point. I am ranking member of the ship and thus the leader of the Alimbic species. I do not wish to be questioned in my judgement. I waited this long to see if you would seek repentance for your misdeed. I am disappointed that you have not. You and I will be sharing some strong words.~" Aliborak said, scarcely even noticing Sylan at the door way, the mechanoid giving a concerned look before floating away.

* * *

_Sigmund's chambers, that night  
_

Sigmund lay supine on his bed and let out a discontent sigh as he stared at the ceiling, which he had set to be transparent so that he could look at the stars, the enhancements to his vision made by the Alimbics meant that he could see them all in such sharper detail than any ordinary person could; he could make out little details such as the craters on Tallon IV or one of the satellites the Chozo had overhead. But he looked hardest in the direction where his home galaxy was and breathed out an "I miss you" as he thought of what he had and what he didn't. But as his thoughts drifted to home, so too did they drift to pain, and he quickly shook his head to dispel the memories of fire and death, he wasn't ready to confront that...not yet...if ever.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted as a knock was heard at Sigmund's door, the boy quirking a brow as he willed the door open; the pyschic technology of the chozo habitat responding to his thoughts and dilating the entrance into its open position. The small sound of the shields around the door dropping and the mechanisms pulling back to let the newcomer in were followed by a familiar; clean scent, like air freshner, a scent that brought Sigmund's head swiveling over.

"Come in." He said, turning his head around as he lay a hand on his stomach and frowned.

"Hey there." Said Sylan, getting Sigmund to pull himself up, propping himself up by his arms.

"Oh...uh...hey." He said, scratching the back of his head and moving to put his shoes onto his feet.

"I heard that Aliborak has been giving you a hard time. Are you alright?"

"...No." He said quietly, almost a whisper really, but it was enough for them, especially when his downward cast look was figured into their guess at his emotional state.

Sylan scooped him up into a hug, which he promptly returned and sighed as he lay his head against the metal chestplate of the machine, closing his eyes gently as he hung onto her, pressing his face against her cool metal exterior and inhaling a lungful of crisp Zebesian air.

"I'm sure everything will be better soon Sigmund. I'll do my best to speak to the Alimbics...maybe I can get them to go a bit easy on you." She said as he sniffled slightly.

"Thanks Sylan." He said.

* * *

_Aliborak's chambers, later that night._

"Aliborak." Sylan said as she approached the Alimbic.

"~Yes?~" He asked, turning his head around and making sure that she was aware that she had his full attention.

"You are continuing to push him too hard and continually neglect improving his social skills. Sigmund desperately wants to please you, but you keep on putting him down." She said, Aliborak's glare immediately turning more hostile as he hovered closer to the mechanoid, his one central eye glowing intensely as he stared her down.

"~Are you questioning me?~" Aliborak said, his psychic voice lowering as he made his intent very clear; choose your next words carefully.

"Yes. I find your methods of discipline deeply problematic." She said, folding her arms and staring right back at the Alimbic, not even flinching to make sure that he knew that she wasn't going to back down.

"~And what would you have me do? He is supposed to be battle ready even before adulthood. We cannot allow any manner of fault.~" Aliborak said, circling around her as the sound of air reverberating beneath his feet became clear, his psychic menace becoming almost choking as he had half a mind to simply crush her where she stood.

"Use a gentler hand. He is not one of your own, no matter what experience you may have with your kind." She said, standing her ground and finally prompting Aliborak to back off.

"~I will...consider it.~" He said, turning back towards his personal materials.

"Thank you." She said as she walked out, satisfied that she had gotten what she wanted.

* * *

Sigmund's logbook: People: Humans: Female: Minors: Samus Aran: Born on mining colony K-2L to federation governor Rodney Aran and Virginia Aran, From an early age Samus was noted to be especially bright and precocious. She would establish a close personal friendship with the Chozo known as Old Bird, who regularly made visits to the newfound colony. At the age of three, Samus was orphaned in a massive raid for aflorite by the Space Pirates under the command of Enforcer Ridley. The entire population of the colony was annihilated within an hour, with Virginia giving up her life to save Samus from Ridley and Rodney launching a suicide attack on the volatile aflorite that killed him and destroyed Ridley's fleet; incapacitating the general. Afterwards, Samus was taken in by the Chozo and contrary to records on the attack; did not die on the planet. She currently displays the benefits of an extremely enhanced physiology and neurology and an extensive and thorough education.

Sigmund's notes: Wow…the first other human I've seen since…then. She's, well; pretty amazingly nice. Stretch keeps on talking about her and the Chozo like they're wild children but I like her. And I've never seen her get yelled at like I do. Maybe she's just a better student than me. That's probably it, isn't it? Guess I'll have to try harder when we spar again. I hope we can be friends.

Sigmund's logbook: People: Diamonts: Masculine personality: Adults: Living: Spire. The last living Diamont known in the entirety of the universe. Spire was a security official who retired from active military service before entering cryogenic stasis over a hundred years ago as part of a voluntary time capsule project. Due to uncorrected clerical error following an attempted Kriken conquest of the planet, he was lost from Diamont records. This allowed him to evade the disappearance of the rest of his people. Following his awakening, Spire spent years searching for evidence of his species and the cause of their disappearance, a search that remains unfruitful. In the meantime, he has put his skills and assets to use by engaging in the mercenary trade; which he has proven to be tremendously capable at, and is well regarded for his friendly personality as much as his enormous prowess.

Sigmund's notes: He's one of the nicest people I've ever met. And he always comes around with a million stories! He makes me feel safe around him, and I really want to join him on an adventure some day. He wants to take me on one some day; but Stretch keeps on telling me I'm not ready yet. I hope that "yet" isn't too far away.

Samus' logbook: People: Humans: Male: Minors: Sigmund von Schirmer: Born to Duke Siegfried von Schirmer and Duchess Elsha von Schirmer, Sigmund von Schirmer was expected to accomplish great things from birth. Previously thought to have died with the rest of the Schirmer family on Cylosis; details from Sigmund himself have revealed that the official version of events is grossly untruthful. With his father being cornered and executed and his mother dying to buy him the time he needed to escape into the safe confines of the Alimbic vessel; Sigmund is the sole survivor of the Cylosis attack; and is now the sole remaining member of the house of Schirmer. While benefiting from numerous posthuman enhancements and highly educated, Sigmund seems emotionally unsteady with likely confidence issues and loneliness.

Samus' notes: I think he's sweet, but I'm not really sure on his guardian. I don't think Aliborak is good for him. He never looks back at him when he's looking at him. And he never seems to like talking to him. I hope Old Bird can get him away from him…he deserves better than him. And I'd like to have him around. It'd be nice to have someone who isn't a thousand years old and covered in feathers for once.

* * *

Author's notes: As you can see, Aliborak is not the perfect parent.


	6. Warmth

_"When all seems at its darkest, some will always emerge to bring light." - _Luminoth Proverb

* * *

_Planet HS-413EB, a year later_

The task set to Sigmund for his final test before being allowed to venture out into the world and act independentally of his caretakers was simple enough. He had to explore a world that was once a hub for trade between the elder civilizations due to its rich deposits of Merandranite; a crystal highly valued for its ability to amplify psionic abilities; particularly those that affected the boundaries of space, allowing the planet's facilities to easily set up wormholes that touched all corners of the universe. There he was to see what had become of the ancient trading outpost, to see if anything was worth salvaging from the ancient facility for his guardians to use for their planned rebirth of the alimbic empire.

The planet was classified as an ocean world; with small continents and large archipelagos making up the majority of its land surface and rain was just a fact of life across the planet. This did make him question why he wasn't being sent out with some gravity alteration feature to help him with the wet environs; but Aliborak made it rather clear that he didn't think he had proven his worthiness to wield such technology and told him to make do with special thrusters fitted to his suit to allow him to maneuver in the water with more ease. Sigmund had by that point; learned it was best to not further question Aliborak when he had made his mind lest he make the situation worse for himself.

Quickly scanning the planet, he found a suitable landing site relatively close to one of the more major abandoned space ports; the shields of his ship keeping the rain from touching its sleek exterior as he let his thoughts be translated into commands for the ship; bringing it to a hover before the cavern he decided looked like a good entrance point and gently guiding it inside. Coming out from the top of his ship; he vaulted over the nose of his ship and hit the ground, knees buckling slightly while he stood up; the twelve year old's red eyes taking in the features of the world around him behind his visor.

His red visor hid his curious eyes as he walked; cannon aimed forward as he breathed in filtered air from the planet; water being analyzed for harmful contaminants with each drop and upon being deemed safe, was allowed to make contact with the metallic exterior of his suit and slide off. He briefly stopped when he saw a number of blast cap mushrooms and after a quick scan to confirm they were in fact blast caps; he let out a handful of shots from his arm cannon to detonate the mushrooms lest they prove a problem should he need to make any sudden dodging maneuvers around here.

The crack of thunder over his head briefly drew his attention skyward; Sigmund's alert eyes looking for the telltale bolts of lightning arcing through the night sky while the fauna scurried away from the sounds and sights above them. Despite the fact that civilized beings had long surpassed the power of such thunderbolts, there was something brilliantly majestic about the sight of lightning arcing through the sky and something deeply satisfying about the deep rumble of a thunderclap.

Fauna yes, that was something he needed to be sure of. He scanned a large number of life forms that he passed by; seal like creatures on the beaches who let forth shrill cries from their beaked mouths[1]; vague crab analogues the size of wolves that walked along the beach with rigid tentacles and grappled with thick carapaced arms[2]; flying creatures that seemed to resemble half way points between vultures and insects[3]; ambulatory starfish like beings that crawled around the sand with surprising speed[4], vaguely dog like arthropoid beings who scavenged stranded sea-creatures from the beaches[5]; and sea-serpent like beings who projected steam from their gills when they emerged from the water[6]; clearly enormous even from this distance.

Approaching one of the dog like creatures, he extended a hand to try and pet it, only for the animal to sniff at him and then bolt away as if spooked. A sigh of disappointment came from Sigmund; he had hoped to at least get to touch the creature but it seemed that he wouldn't be getting any such luck at the moment. Turning away he quickly spotted his destination; a formidable looking outpost built to mesh well with the surrounding environment. Despite the passage of millions of years, the only reason the outpost was difficult to see was geological processes and the encroachment of nature disguising much of the structure; the building itself seemed almost untouched by time's passage.

Whistling in an impressed manner, Sigmund walked towards the facility; remaining quiet for lack of anyone to share any conversation with. He saw a shortcut on his path; some ledges he could climb onto; and quickly leaped up on them with ease, vaulting some ten meters into the air as if it was a simple hop. The high atmospheric pressure created greater drag on his jump, but it made the landing smoother than it would be in less dense conditions.

Taking a moment to analyze his surroundings, he made sure to draw a mental pathway back to his ship in case he needed to hurry with an escape, and fired off his cannon at the light blue door to let him through. As the door dilated away to let him through, he took a moment to see the architecture to his flanks, rows of statues of various species and gardens that had long gotten overgrown; countless generations of plants having died and been born beneath the warm lights and automatic watering and fertilization systems of the outpost.

His scan informed him that the food offered by the plant was edible, and he was sorely tempted to try and take a bite out of it, but he shook his head and pulled his arm back. No, he had to remain focused. He couldn't distract himself with thoughts of food. He turned back to the door and shot it open, placing a hand on the side of his arm cannon to stabilize it as his eyes alertly looked around and tried to parse what he saw.

It seemed that, in another age this served as some form of lobby, though it would be hard to tell that the small room was supposed to be one now. Plant life outgrew its initial constraints over the course of ten million years, and had adapted to live in a little ecosystem based around the light from above and the water released periodically and from a stream that came from a now smashed fountain that periodically spurted out water. He took a look at the fountain, it was supposed to be intact...these things were built to last after all, but if the ecosystem here had adapted to it it had to have been broken a very long time ago. His scan visor went to work and his mind was quickly filled with the new information.

"Analysis of the fountain indicates that it suffered some form of explosive shock one million years ago, likely from an artificial weapon. Analysis of the shocked minerals indicates that the weapon likely was of a tachyonic nature." Huh, that got him to be rather curious. Still, if it occured one million years ago it probably wasn't his problem now. However, seemingly disturbed by his footsteps, a number of creatures descended from their roosts on the ceiling, somewhat mammalian, hairy things the size of dogs with short, brutish heads like an orca and a third pair of limbs that emerged from above their forelimb's shoulders that ended in sharp bony claws. Tails with wicked barbs flicked to and fro as the creatures let out a keening howl and their twin eyes focused on Sigmund. A quick scan of the creatures gave him their name, Koorans[7]

He let out a sigh as they lunged towards him, his warrior's reflexes kicking in with haste and letting him dodge to the left with a quick jump as he struck the first one in the head with a power beam shot. A blast far more energetic than the primitive slugthrowers used in humanity's distant past struck the creature in the head and vaporized most of it, the ovoid and orange sphere of energy scattering flecks of bone and steaming meat. He ducked beneath the attempted charge of one that came behind him, moving with what amounted to precognition as his enhanced senses and his suit warned him of the danger and its angle of attack and directed his body with the movements needed to avoid the creature.

He twisted his body, grabbed it by the tail and swung himself around to throw the creature into one of its comrades with a single motion so swift that one could swear that it happened instananeously; muscles meant to function in gravity far higher than this world's and still function at incredible capacities working in tandem with his power suit to move his body with enough force to swat a freight locomotive in motion off of the rails. The two creatures perished instantly with a sickening crunching noise as he turned his weapon to the last of them and fired off a shot at another two; killing both of them with ease and sending the remainder of the pack scampering away in a panic towards what seemed like a tunnel of some sorts.

Muttering out an apology, Sigmund looked for anything else to scan and seemed almost disappointed when he could find nothing else of importance that he could reach, though he cast a fond glance at some of the art that decorated the diamond shaped room before he shot open and went through yet another door. Another hallway was traversed, with ancient looking columns raised upwards and displaying a number of messages that he identified as assorted welcome messages, through both his familiarity with what he identified as alimbic scripture emerging from the holograms and from the telepathic messages the pillars sent. He went through another door and stopped when he found himself in a large cyllindrical room, a series of circular platforms rising into the air to form a staircase of sorts.

He wasn't sure why it didn't just have a teleporter or a lift, or why some of the platforms were moving up and down or left to right, but his suit informed him that this was some recreational facility; and he guessed it had to be part of some self set challenge. Sucking in a breath of air he started his first jump with a running leap, then kicked himself back into the air with a flip to land on the next one, waiting for another to approach before vaulting off after it. Like a nimble flea, he casually made jumps that devoured dozens and scores of meters of distance at a time. He even jumped at the wall and kicked off it to reach another platform; something he felt quite proud of as he made his ascent some one and a half kilometers upwards. With a final jump his boots hit the ground and he saw a green light and heard a soft ping and raised his arms in celebration and smiled for himself beneath the suit.

He noted a hard lock on the door staring him in the face and shot a single missile at it to let himself through, walking into a hallway that shifted itself, showing him what was outside by using its surface as a screen and instantly giving him the full eye view of everything around him. He then looked outside and noticed that there was no way he went up one point six kilometers meters, the distance he was from the ground hadn't changed anywhere near that much. He stared outside in confusion, and then back into the room he just left and indeed, it was roughly one point six kilometers. His suit informed him of a "significant spacetime alteration" in the previous room once it processed all the data, and he gave an impressed nod, though the sensation that he probably missed a much more efficient way up gnawed at him.

He was so busy thinking that only his precognitive abilities let him get out of the way of an incoming dark grey tentacle trying to grab at him, jumping into a backflip to avoid the attack before what seemed like a dozen more shot off after him. He shot at two of them, forcing them to retract while a launched missile dissuaded another four, but four managed to grab on him as he tried to twist his way out of another. He struggled against his captor and charged up his beam, sending energy through his shielding and making something let out a screech of pain as it let go of him. Its camouflage disrupted, a creature that vaguely resembled the offspring of a barnacle and an Octopus made itself apparent as it opened up its tendrils in a threat display with a beak at the center, now flashing red and apparently the size of a cow, his scan visor named the creature a Zeg[8]. He let out a grunt and fired off a series of nonlethal shots this time, trying to avoid killing it and causing the creature to ripple as it felt the stunning energy go through it. Squealing with pain, the creature quickly moved its snail like foot at its "top" to get out of his way, disappearing through what he figured was an open hatch in the ceiling.

Shaking his head, he went to the first room he saw, and took note that it was an emergency teleportation save station, and gave it a nod as he made use of it, letting it re-energize his shielding as he logged his suit's transport systems to the save station's location. Inside the room was...unusually, a lot of murals depicting some sort of war, the images in the murals shifting and moving as he watched them depict a stylized rendition of a number of species he recognized (and some he didn't), fight a great many beings that were foreign to him. He tilted his head a bit, and his scan visor informed him that it was depicting a battle against "the greatest of enemies" and dated the mural back to at least ten million years ago. Letting out a "huh", he diverted his attention from the mural and made his way to another door he saw in the corridors of the room he left. However, he stopped when he heard voices and dove into cover.

He took a moment to peek around and found himself in a largely rectangular room, columns decorated the room at regular intervals, and there seemed to be a large number of places to sit. He took a look again and , and saw some Cyborg going through the room, heavy set and powerfully built in thick looking armor and a vaguely skull like helmet. One of the eyepieces on their helmet was covered by a monocular scope and the other glowed a prominent blue, and their left hand ended in a nasty looking mechanical claw not unlike the talons of an eagle. The other arm was fitted with some rotary weapon, and the largely gunmetal grey and blue mechanical man turned their attentions to the door that just opened. Judging by the height of the armoured collar they had, which stopped at a few inches below the scalp, he figured that the Cyborg didn't have the best peripheral vision, but noted a camera on the back of their head. Plantigrade "two toed" feet much like a power loader's carried them towards the entrance as Sigmund moved aside to let them try and investigate what opened the door.

They poked their heads through the opened door, swiveled left and right and then let out a small dragonfly esque drone fron their claw arm, letting it fly into the room as they returned to picking through the room. Sigmund breathed out a sigh of relief as he avoided a confrontation with the Cyborg, and couldn't tear his thoughts away from how he managed to miss another sapient combing through the planet. He figured that the Cyborg had to have come before he did, and given the lack of reverence they gave what they were picking through, he figured they weren't sent by anyone he trusted. Evaluating his options, Sigmund figured that trying to avoid conflict with the two and a fifth meter tall man-machine was the best course of action, letting his scan visor get a read of the thing.[9]

A bounty hunter? Here? Why? Were what Sigmund was thinking when he took another look at Yranthor before they turned as a door open and spoke up again. "Find anything?" He asked, snapping his claw shut as a figure in similar armour with a single large cannon rather than a rotary weapon came through[10].

"A lot of the better crap here is under lock and key. We'll need better weapons to crack open some of the security. Some of the stuff here is probably outright inaccessible" She said with some irritation evident in her voice.

"Damn shame...still it's not like we're in a rush are we?" Yranthor said as he swiveled his head around.

"True. No one else should know about this. We'll just get something bigger and crack it open later. Not like the dead are using it anyway." She said in response as Sigmund felt anger welling up inside of him. How dare they violate this sacred place with their greed?!

He balled his fist in anger as he waited for them to turn around before he let them walk out, chatting about nothing important in particular as they walked out of the room. Letting out a sigh of relief he waited for the sound of their footsteps to recede before he examined the room. His eyes lit up when they came upon a wall he recognized to have nano-scaled holographic projectors to let the wall function as a screen or projector. Running towards it, he had it start up with his Scan visor's interface function and let out a little laugh of joy to himself as the wall hummed and throbbed to life. Long dormant systems returned to life, but what he saw wasn't what he expected. He saw the holographic projection of a Ylla; light purple and strangely serene. The creature was long and serpentine, with a head that opened up like a petal with five jaws; and tendrils that split into much smaller fine manipulation tentacles that surrounded the thing's neck like a rennaisance era ruff, a great many small centipede like legs going across its lower body. Five eyes, each between the triangular jaws of the creature, turned to focus on him as if the Hologram was still alive.

"I am Zegulra, the first protector of this place. I see that you wear the artifical skin of the Alimbics, yet your soul is different. I ask you your name stranger, and tell you that there is nothing to be found for looters in this place but death." Zegulra said, though what Sigmund heard was a lot of strange grumbling, warbling, and ululations, but he somehow understood what the hologram said even though he had never heard or read the any of the languages of the Ylla before.

"I'm uh...I am Sigmund von Schirmer, Neophyte of the Alimbics. I wa-am human. It's an...h-honor to see you." Sigmund said, internally cursing himself for tripping over his own tongue as he tried to project an air of majesty even as the Hologram snaked around the preteen boy, looking at him from every angle before returning to its original place.

"The old tales of the heroes of a far distant future produce you?" The hologram said, and Sigmund gave a respectful nod in response, trying to stand tall and proud and puff out his chest a bit.

"Then there was merit to the words of the seers." It said, its tone deepening while he got the feeling that the being was lost in thought.

"Are you still...with us, physically?" Sigmund asked, the creature turning its head away from the corpses of the creatures he had killed and looking directly at him.

"I died a very long time ago. I and others are bound to this place as constructs of data and spirit to watch over it and keep its last secrets secure until someone worthy finds them." They responded, coiling their tentacles together into something that if looked at from a certain angle would have resembled a beard.

"Secrets? Isn't this just a trading post?" He asked, confusion evident in his tone.

"To the current generation of civilizations that live in the stars, even our long discarded civilian implements would be enough to cause great disruption in the wrong hands. And this is more than just a space port, Neophyte." Zegulra said, calm and serene, seeming to adopt a more respectful tone of voice than what it was just using a few moments ago.  
"Then what is it? Aliborak didn't tell me much." He asked, his eyes shining with wonder beneath his helmet as he waited to hear the wisdom of the long dead ancient, which paused for the briefest moment as it accessed all data records available to it and that which could be scanned from worlds within the range of the outpost before returning an answer.

"I am unsurprised that an Alimbic would keep secrets from you. Towards the end of the age of the enlightened this place was reconsecrated as a temple as the trade routes began to close and the old civilizations turned inwards." They responded, snaking their body slightly closer to Sigmund who took a single step back from the holographic image.  
"A temple? To what?" He asked.

"To hope and the future." They responded calmly as the entire room seemed to disappear into a black void before they formed holographic images that seemed so real that Sigmund felt he could reach out and touch them, showing stars and planets in the void and then to a collection of the truly ancient species. The Chozo, Alimbics, Luminoth, Ylla, N'Kren, Diamonts, and more gathered their representatives together to discuss something of importance.

"The end of our era was something we all were aware of...something we had all planned for. Rather than succumb to greed as some had done, we planned to gradually withdraw ourselves from physical reality and allow ourselves to fade into the background. However, we recognized that a time of great calamity would come in the future. Mistakes that we made in the past would haunt those we had left behind, and by then we would be too weak to stop it." They explained as Sigmund bore witness to snippets of the many discussions the oldest species had to withdraw from the universe at large.

"Why? Why not just stick around and face the danger?" Sigmund asked. And in response the black void went red and showed fast fleets of ships with a design aesthetic he would have pegged for somewhat mesoamerican hanging in a menacingly coloured Nebula. Then he saw the destruction of worlds, stars, even galaxies as these ships and a horror show of advanced weaponry tore through the universe, The scene shifted to show Sillicoid warriors clad in armour that seemed to be made of stone, vaguely insectoid in appearance they had an impressive diversity in form. Some walked on four spider legs with a somewhat humanoid body with four arms atop it, some had highly developed wings, four arms, and two legs, some were wingless but had two vestigal limbs emerging from their shoulders. All had a single main compound eye with a star pattern of smaller ones besides it, and all gave him a feeling of menace as he watched them rampage through the stars.

"History showed to us the folly of trying to play act as the masters of the universe." They said as the scene shifted to one of the creatures, with a powerful looking body with strong and thick arms that ended in hands with eight fingers each and a broad body whose shoulders were covered in pauldrons that seemed like the turrets of castles, with large wings of crystal, four arms, powerful legs, a head covered in a vaguely knight esque helmet, a mighty hammer in hand and something he recognized as a crown on its head. Primarily dark grey in colouration, Tyrian purple light glowed from the circuit like connective mesh between the plates of the giant's armour as it stood atop a huge step pyramid, presenting some form of sacrifice to a portal in the sky as the eye pieces of the helmet glowed a fierce purple; the mouth guard opening up to reveal a series of small mandibles while curling antennae at the back of its head slowly twisted forward around its crown of blades. Millions upon millions of its species cheered it from below as the sacrifice died screaming.

"W...who are those...things?" He asked as Zegulra's image made itself clear again.

"The Xik'krivik, the enemy. They were once considered enlightened in a long distant age, but they were aggressive, authoritarian, domineering as a result of their caste system producing the belief that some were innately fit to rule others. They enthusiastically believed that it was the right of the old civilizations to rule eternally, and to ensure that younger civilizations were raised along their models. Eventually, others had enough and defeated them in a series of smaller wars to dissuade them from trying to present themselves as Emperors instead of Guides to younger civilizations, and their hatred stewed to a boiling point until they started to contact beings from beyond reality that they identified with their gods, and transformed themselves into a hateful theocracy. Xyc'kraval, their last and most terrible "Lord High Dominator", came to rule them through his connection to these beings and in his madness waged war against the universe in an attempt to rebuild it in his image and take vengeance for what he believed was his people's humiliation." Zegulran explained as they showed the process of expansionism, containment, conflict, defeat, rebuilding; further conflicts that ended in a final defeat, then bitterness racing through them and their deals with higher powers followed by a great war.

"For a time, some even called themselves allies of the Xik'krivik, such as the Rikeula Empire and the Krekula Kingdoms, but eventually the madness of Xyc'kraval was too much to ignore and they aided us in bringing about the defeat of the Xik'krivik after millions of years of war that devastated the universe. We took pity on the Xik'krivik, and did not wish to eradicate them, but when they tried to rebuild and attack again after but a few decades of peace, we had their entire civilization exiled into a prison reality from which there is no escape with a powerful superweapon that we later disassembled to ensure none would be tempted to use it. After such horror, we believed that it would be best to do what we could to remove ourselves from the affairs of younger civilizations and avoid the temptation of Imperialism." They explained as they showed snippets of a great and terrible war that went through the universe like a fire through a sheet of paper, finally culminating in the assaults on the core of the Dominion, their attempts at another gambit for vengeance, and then their final exile before images of mourning were shown as the cost of war was made apparent, the scene shifting to one of desolation as a few warriors looked at a world devastated by conflict; left half dead from but a minor skirmish as the world's star seemed like it was wounded, almost pulled apart really.

"Other elder civilizations repeated this cycle. With one of the last being one that you may know yourself, given its importance in human history." Zegulra said.

"The Hekraqulira" Sigmund breathed out. The Vhozon, Humanity, the Krikens, the Urtraghians, and many of the other species who had become important in the current age were rocked by their invasion countless millenia ago; exposing them to a kind of war that no one ever wanted to relive. The Chozo helped lead the charge to drive the bulbous eyed monsters back and formed the galactic federation afterwards some two thousand cosmic years ago to help ensure peace in the stars. Though he barely identified with humanity, he considered it important to learn how humanity was introduced to the wider universe.

"Indeed. After that time, the other conflicts between the Elders were never quite as grand. The Alimbics died long ago, the Chozo were fading as more and more left this reality behind, the Luminoth scattered with some deciding to settle on the distant world of Aether, the Diamonts would disappear, the N'Kren would go to their mausoleum worlds and sleep, we withdrew to far distant corners of the universe and catastrophe seemed to have a way to always find us, whittling our numbers. But you have been spared the scourge of cosmic war. That is enough for us to conclude our choice was right." Zegulra said, their transluscent hologram flashing a number of strange colours before returning to the normal light purple.

"...But what's this...thing you're worried about?" Sigmund asked, Zegulra shaking its head and wriggling its tendrils in sinewave patterns.

"It is not one thing so much as many. A poison, a corruption, the ultimate warriors, the parasite, the machninists, the Mad and many other things. Many things that we failed to destroy in our time, many things born out of our mistakes, many things born of the mistakes of the young, many things that have yet to come." They said in response, slowly rearing up to greater height and letting the room's image projectors turn off save for those allowing its image to be projected.

"Okay then give me what I need to stop it." Sigmund said as if this was just the most obvious course of action.

"You are not yet ready, Neophyte. You are still a child with deep wounds and have yet to do what is needed to show that you are prepared." Zegulra said flatly, a bit of anger flaring to the surface of Sigmund's thoughts.

"If I'm supposed to be some chosen one shouldn't I already be ready?" Sigmund said, venom dripping in his voice as he clenched his fist. Anger he never quite learned to properly control besides giving it a target or suppressing it started to well to the surface and resentment he kept contained started to leak from its holdings as he started to scowl beneath his helmet.

"You are not a chosen one. You are not alone in this endeavor. Fate is not set in stone, it is a guideline, but it can be subverted. Before we can entrust you with this, you will need to show that you have matured enough to handle it." They said as Sigmund sighed and started to turn away dejectedly, believing he had come here for nothing.

"I did not say you would be returning empty handed however." They said, making him turn around as he saw something rise from the ground, looking at a purple statuette opening its jaws to hold an orb with the letter I on it, and he reached out for it, touching it and looking on in amazement. The statuette disintegrated into blue-tinted white particles that circled around him before swirling around his arm cannon, glowing more and more intensely bright before merging with the cannon in a flash of blue light as his arm cannon shifted; expanding upwards to accomodate the new upgrade that he just had to test fire, firing off an icy augmentation of his usual power beam and smiling widely when he saw ice crystals form on the wall.

"Oh wow...thanks!" He said enthusiastically.

"You will likely be needing it soon." Zegulra said, making Sigmund look at them quizzically.

"Wait, why?" He asked.

"They are now aware of your presence here. I hid these systems from their scanners, but they cannot have missed the sounds of our conversation. Prepare yourself Sigmund, for your first trial." They said as their hologram disappeared just as the door dilated open in a hurry from mag-weapon fire and the two cyborgs came stomping in, guns reared at the boy as he raised his arm cannon at them in response.

"You've got something of ours! Hand it over and we don't break you over our knee." Maera said as she pointed her Mag-Cannon at Sigmund.

"Nothing here belongs to you." Sigmund said, tersely though one could detect the venom in his voice even through the modulators he used to disguise himself as his visor went fully one way, hiding his eyes from the two before they could get any real look at it.

"Finder's keepers." Yranthor said with a chuckle as his mag-cannon's barrels spun up and spat out a rain of extremely high speed and tiny projectiles at a decent fraction of the speed of light; flame seeming to tear through the air as the projectiles ignited the air behind them. Sigmund was quick to move however, and rolled to the side to get out of the way, Maera targeting him with her mag cannon and punched a hole through the air that Sigmund managed to evade with a backflip, his arm pointing towards them and giving them a taste of his newly acquired ice beam that struck Yranthor repeatedly; freezing the air around his shields and locking him in ice. But with his shields still up, he had the leverage he needed to shatter the quickly melting frozen oxygen and charged up a grenade launch.

Sigmund did what most people would have regarded as a sign of insanity, jumping up and over some of the tables and towards Yranthor as Maera tried to track the youth with a laser cutter, only to watch her partner get tackled at high speeds. Sigmund wasn't heavy enough to throw Yranthor off his feet, but he was able to quickly swing himself upwards and onto Yranthor's shoulders, shooting down at his head as he shouted obscenities trying to get at the boy on his shoulders.

"You pint sized fuck! I'll have your eyeballs for that!" He roared as Sigmund jumped up, landed on Yranthor's head and then kicked off with enough force to knock Yranthor into the ground face first, shaking the room a bit as Maera growled. Now with a clear shot, she let loose with a Mag-cannon that Sigmund sidestepped before she shot her power claw hand forward with a series of thrusters on the arm to grab at Sigmund's chest and try to crush his torso. Sigmund grunted with pain as he felt the power fields of the claw interact with his suit's shielding and the pressure the fingers of the claw was exerting. Enough to crush coal into diamonds several times over, but Sigmund shoved a knee up to strike the arm in the elbow, jerking Maera enough to make her let go as he struck her in the chest with a charged ice beam shot.

He felt something on his boot and yelped as Yranthor pulled him to the ground and then swung him overhead to smash him face first into the ground, snarling with fury as he repeated the motion and then revved up the mag-cannon to pound into Sigmund's armoursuit. Sigmund didn't give him too much time to eat into his shielding however, charging up a missile and letting it fly, striking Yranthor in the chest with enough force to send him across the room as he himself was clipped by a mag-cannon round before he could fully dodge as Maera shattered her icy barriers.

"Stop squirming and this will be over quickly!" She said as Sigmund let out a pant as he took stock of what damage he had taken. Half an energy tank. He wasn't about to let this turn into a slugfest though, and when he sensed danger he leaped overhead and let one of Yranthor's grenades smack right into Maera, making her let out a pained grunt as Sigmund struck her again with a missile to send her toppling over before he turned to Yranthor and circled around the slower cyborg, continually firing away with his ice beam. Sigmund said nothing, entirely wordless as he iced the giant over before turning to Maera as she tried to catch him between mag-cannon shots; each of the roars of the sound barrier's protests being muffled automatically by his helmet while he made sure to dodge around her aim.

She activated thrusters on her back and her feet, launching herself at him at high speeds, cutting his movement off by quickly firing mag rounds to his left and his right before she shoulder checked him straight into the wall. He felt a jolt of pain as he hit the wall with a massive thud, Maera trying to shove him through the wall while crushing him with her power claw. But with a missile to her head, she was forced to let go as the roar of the explosion boomed through the room, red flames and smoke obscuring her vision before Sigmund dropped to the ground, dashed at her, twisted his body and threw his left fist forward with a shout. His fist came at her with the force to crumple up the front of an old tank and toss the vehicle backwards for a good distance, hitting her with the clap of a shockwave and throwing her back and into the wall while Sigmund retargeted Yranthor and let out a quick three shot spread of missiles. The first shattered Yranthor's icy covering, the next two send him falling over.

They were larger than he was, but they couldn't match his technological advantage. He was probably actually physically stronger than they were given the superiority of his posthuman augmentations and his power suit, but they were more experienced fighters and they had a numerical advantage over him. Mobility however, was a field where he was king, as he aptly demonstrated by vaulting over both Maera's laser cutter and Yranthor's gatling-mag barrage, bouncing off the ceiling and back onto the ground and then bouncing off the wall while peppering them with ice beam shots to wear down their shielding.

"God damn it where did that midget get that suit?" Maera said as he shot off a missile at her to force her to have to intercept it with her mag-cannon rather than use it against him, turning and shooting a grenade from Yranthor out of the air before it got more than halfway towards him.

"Damned if I know, it's blocking my scanners." Yranthor said with a grunt before Sigmund's arm cannon clicked and switched to his subweapon of choice; the Shock Coil. He targeted Maera first, circling around her as she grunted from the burst of neutrinos impacting her. She quailed as the Neutrinos sapped her shields with ever increasing speed, and once he saw that she was on her knees; he switched over to the volt driver, jumping above an attempted grab by her at his pelvis and moving to try and kick her in the chest to end this, only to be winged by a grenade that launched him across the room. Smacking into a table, Sigmund groaned as he picked himself up, shaking his head as he pummeled Yranthor repeatedly with Volt Driver blasts, until he saw Yranthor's shields failing him.

With the two of them having lost their shielding, he targeted their arms with missile fire in quick succession; two missiles for each set of limbs was enough to blast off their limbs and literally disarm them as they dropped to their knees and stumbled over. Exhaling, his arm cannon clicked and contracted as it exited missile mode and he finally spoke at last. "Leave." He said, making it clear what would happen if they didn't by gesturing at them with his arm cannon, the two cyborgs looking at their discarded arms; then at Sigmund, and then making a break for it.

His suit quickly analyzed the technology they left behind, and through its analyses made the modifications needed to assimilate the systems. Moving forward, he touched the upgrades they left behind and let the technology break apart into digital light that flowed into his own armor. From them, he assimilated the energy grenade launcher, the mag-repeater, the AT mag, and the laser cutter for his arm cannon's weaponry. His suit also adapted the power claw; giving him a retractable bayonet to use from his arm cannon and wrist extendable claws for melee combat; and adapting the grip of the power claw into the power grip function. The thrusters were also assimilated, improving his own ability to jump and move. This was perhaps the greatest ability of the armoursuits of the ancients; to absorb, assimilate, and adapt other technologies into their modular systems. Even the biological abilities of living beings could be assimilated under the right circumstances.

He gave a nod to where the Holographic avatar of the Ylla had emerged from, and made his way back to his ship. He definitely had...questions he wanted to ask of Aliborak now.

* * *

Sigmund's Logbook

Planets: Zendusi Galaxy: Araskatsa Arm: Eleya Star Cluster: Human Habitable: Unclaimed: HS-413EB: A planet with a high oxygen content of 32% and an atmospheric pressure three times that of Earth's, were it not for the frequent rain storms on the planet it would be likely that its frequent forest fires would have claimed its many trees. The richness it atmospheric oxygen allows for large life forms to roam the warm planet while the dilution of Merandranite into the water has reversed the usual effects of temperature on Water's ability to dissolve oxygen, making the warm seas extremely rich in dissolved oxygen and allowing for enormous life forms.

[1] Life Forms: Nonsapient: Air breathing: Aquatic: Vertebrate: HS-413EB: Skreeler: Seal like organisms, Skreelers are largely harmless to most land dwelling forms of life and primarily feast on smaller aquatic life forms. Scans indicate however, that the animal likely has severe halistosis.

[2] Life Forms: Nonsapient: Amphibious: Semi-Aquatic: Invertebrate: HS-413EB: Mekemeka: Mekamekas are opportunistic predators and will eat anything that they feel safe in attacking; largely anything smaller then they are; and will not hesitate to eat deceased organisms. Mekamekas can also create a bioluminescent flash to confuse would be predators.

[3] Life Forms: Semisapient: Air breathing: Airborne: Semi-Vertebrate: HS-413EB: Zokizok: An airborne scavenger the Zokizok is largely harmless to larger organisms and primarily scavenges off of dead life forms.

[4] Life Forms: Nonsapient: Gill breathing: Aquatic: Invertebrate: HS-413EB: Kleemen: Slow moving creatures, Kleemen primarily hunt using bio-electricity and crushing prey to death with their tentacles.

[5] Life Forms: Semisapient: Air Breathing: Land Dwelling: Vertebrate: HS-413EB: Jolonin: Filling a niche akin to jackals and coyotes on Earth, Jolonins are opportunistic and highly adaptable omnivorous creatures who are well suited to surviving in just about any condition.

[6] Life Forms: Sapient: Air breathing: Aquatic: Vertebrate: Pre-Civilization: HS-413EB: Xuldrake: Xuldrakes are highly social and sapient creatures, held back primarily by their lack of manipulation appendages much like Dolphins on Earth. Capable of breathing out a gust of magnetized steam to attack their prey, they have a sophisticated system of communication and social system.

[7] Life Forms: Semisapient: Air breathing: Land Dwelling: Vertebrate: HS-413EB: Koorans: A pack hunting megafaunal predator native to HS-413 EB, Koorans are quick to breed and highly aggressive. Skilled and capable climbers, they spend much of the day sleeping while attached to some form of solid surface to evade larger predators, and when they awaken they attack with deadly fore-limb claws, scything talons, and a barb with a poison that while harmless to humans, serves as a nerve toxin to their preferred prey animals. Their bite forces are also strong enough to crush the bones of scavenged animals or allow them to hold onto wildly thrashing prey.

[8] Life Forms: Proto-Sapient: Amphibious: Semi-Aquatic: Invertebrate: Multiplanetary: Zeg: An amphibious ambush predator, Zegs prefer armoured prey to eat and are specialized in hunting carapaced or shelled prey items as well as cracking open hardened nut analogue plant matter. Omnivorous and social, Zegs found alone are typically in the process of moving to find another group of Zegs to live near. Zeg tentacles secrete an acid that is harmless to skin, keratin, bone, eye tissue, and flesh but dangerous to metal, fabric, polymesh, and chitin. Zegs are notorious for their adaptability as invasive species and habits of stowing away on ships, as well as their habit of attacking explorers or passerbys only to stop when they realize that what was under the shell was not their preferred food item. Zegs grow throughout their lives and grow additional tentacles with increased size and are not known to undergo senescence.

[9] Bounty Hunters: Cybernetic: Elfin: Non-Aligned: Male: Yranthor: A consummate mercenary and salvager, Yranthor typically works alongside his fellow Cyborg Maera; the Elfin woman having been operating alongside him since they started their careers. When not busy with contracts, chasing after posted bounties, or freelance work, they resort to salvage operations of sometimes dubious legality to add to their incomes and find more technology to augment themselves with. Over ninety percent of Yranthor is mechanical, and the Cyborg simply swaps out bodies when he feels like socializing with a synth body based on his natural one; handsome, devilish, and with the ability to drink most people he meets under the table. Yranthor is competitive and notably possessive and has been criticized for poor impulse control by many. However, they have potent weaponry and cybernetic parts and the skills to use them. This body of Yranthor has heavy armour plating and double layered shielding, and utilizes a rotary mag-cannon with the ability to launch grenades or missiles and a power claw to engage in combat. Yranthor is however, somewhat slow and reliant on thrusters for high speed maneuverability. A large number of utility and combat drones are also known to be heavily utilized by Yranthor.

[10] Bounty Hunters: Cybernetic: Elfin: Non-Aligned: Female: Maera: Yranthor's long time partner in crime, Maera was actually the one who started their two man operation. Legally the spouse of Yranthor, the two are well known for finding other hobbies and other people to spend their time with when they aren't on the job, though some affection is noted between the two. Cybernetic to a similar degree as Yranthor, Maera handles much of the business side of their operations while he deals with the legal issues. Like Yranthor, when off duty she simply swaps herself into a synth body based on her previous one for whenever it would be better than her combat bodies. She is notably greedy and manipulative, but has been known to show softer sides on occasion, and is regarded as largely unempathetic to people she doesn't consider friends. This particular body of Maera is equipped with a Mag-cannon meant to penetrate armoured targets with a cutting laser mounted beneath, a power claw, and a number of drones to utilize. Like Yranthor, Maera is slow and dependent on thrusters to enhance her mobility.

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AN: Wow this was super delayed wasn't it? Hopefully now I should be able to maintain a regular update pace though, as I've planned out the saga more fully. I'm changing up how the log book works now that it's sigmund's logbook instead of the logbooks of Imperial intelligence.


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